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Malacañang lashed out at Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. for
rejecting the Supreme Court’s compromise formula that allows
Romulo Neri to reappear in a Senate inquiry into the controversial
national broadband deal.
“It is regrettable that [Villar] has spurned
the Supreme Court’s good intentions for a compromise on the use of
executive privilege. This is obviously an act motivated by personal
ambition rather than statesmanship,” Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye
said in a press statement Friday.
“The President has done her share by revoking
[Executive Order] 464 and Memorandum Circular 108. We invite our
legislators to work with the executive branch and have a fresh start
toward better governance,” he added.
Both documents order executive officials not to
testify before congressional investigations without the approval of
President Gloria Arroyo.
Malacañang, apparently, was unaware that Villar
had practically relented on the Puno compromise formula.
The Senate president also on Friday said it
would be pointless to require the attendance of Neri in the Senate
inquiry if senators could not ask him the three questions about the
aborted $330-million broadband deal that they believe to matter
most.
The High Tribunal had said the Senate could not
have Neri as witness with the rejection of the compromise formula.
It added that the Senate must wait until it resolves the petition of
Neri on the invocation of executive privilege and the power of the
Senate to order his arrest for refusing to testify.
“If we could not ask these three questions,
then it is useless to have Secretary Neri here. It is better that we
wait for the decision of the Supreme Court,” Villar said.
The compromise formula said Neri could appear
before the Senate probe but must not be asked the three questions
that are the subject of Neri’s petition. The questions are: (1)
Did the President have any interest in the national broadband
network project? (2) Did the President order Neri to prioritize the
project? and (3) Did she order the continuance of the project
despite Neri’s allegations of bribery?
Neri was the socioeconomic planning chief when
the broadband deal was negotiated.
Villar said the senators want on record the
President’s reaction after Neri had told her of the alleged
attempt by former Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. of the Commission on
Elections to bribe him with P200 million in exchange for the
approval of the broadband project.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the senators actually
already know the answers to the three questions so the compromise
formula should have been approved.
Sen. Francis Escudero said questions whose
answers are not known to the public are useless. He opposed any move
that would require Neri to answer questions only in an executive
session where only the senators would know his answers.
Escudero maintained that the compromise formula
was not a brainchild of Puno but of Neri’s legal counsel, Antonio
Bautista.
Lacson earlier said he has a new witness who has
direct knowledge of the alleged distribution of the bribes from ZTE
Corp., the Chinese firm that won the broadband contract.
-- Efren L. Danao, Angelo S. Samonte and William B. Depasupil
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