'Ermita stand absurd'

Senators slam new 'gag' order

SENATORS yesterday expressed outrage over remarks of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita that the Senate should first publish its rules and procedures before it can summon cabinet members to its inquiries.

"It's time to change Ermita for engaging in double talk. I can't fully blame him because as he says he's not a lawyer. That's why I am proposing he should be replaced by Mercedita Ona, this young girl who topped the recent exam. She would know the law better than Ermita," said minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr.

"He is only reacting without deep analysis. It does not carry much weight."
Ermita on Sunday announced that cabinet members would invoke the Supreme Court ruling nullifying the arrest order on Romulo Neri because the Senate had not published its rules on the conduct of inquiries.

Ermita cited the Supreme Court, by a vote of 10- He said that due to the lack of publication of procedures, all the hearings conducted by the Senate "can be considered constitutionally infirm."
Senate majority leader Francis Pangilinan said: "Secretary Ermita is not a lawyer so we can't blame him if he miserably fails to see the dangerous legal implications of his remarks. If we follow his position.then we come to the ridiculous and absurd conclusion.that all laws in the 14th Congress are likewise void for lack of valid hearings."

Among the bills passed was the P1.227 trillion national budget for 2008.

"If we allow Ermita's arguments to remain uncontested then any person whose rights may have been curtailed or adversely affected by any of the laws passed in the 14th Congress can now come to court and claim that because the rules had not been published at the time that the hearings to craft these laws were conducted then these hearings as well as the laws enacted are void," Pangilinan added.

Pangilinan said the Supreme Court decision, as interpreted by Ermita, undermined the constitutional principle of co-equality among the three branches of government and effectively assumed that there were now only two branches, with Congress, particularly the Senate, out of the picture.

"Until this ruling is clarified and going by Secretary Ermita's assertion, we effectively have only two branches of government. The legislative branch has been marginalized and is no longer a co-equal," he said.

"The Senate is a continuing body. It need not re-publish its rules unless there have been amendments. We have not amended our rules since 1995," he said.

Sen. Francis Escudero said Ermita should check his facts because the committees on justice and human rights, and ways and means where he is chairman published their rules in the Official Gazette last year.

"We would like to remind Ermita not to make a wholesale statement like that without checking the facts," he said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said: "Malacañang is now interpreting executive privilege as the privilege of the chief executive to steal (the) people's money, (and) then cover the truth behind the crime.

Executive Secretary Ermita's tepid arrogance in saying that Cabinet members won't be allowed to attend Senate hearings is the sad consequence of the Court's expanded meaning of executive privilege," he said.

Lacson maintained that the Senate, as a continuing body, does not need to publish its rules every year.

"This has been resolved by the Court in past oral arguments involving similar issues raised against the Senate," he said.

Pro-administration Sen. Joker Arroyo was also piqued with the remarks of Ermita by quoting Winston Churchill.

"The great Churchill once said, 'In defeat, defiance; in victory magnanimity'," he said.

"Malacañang got a 9-6 and 10-5 victory, whence they should be thankful and magnanimous by simply being quiet and prudent, and not to unnecessarily taunt the Senate, a weakness of small minds. Why needlessly declare war on the Senate?" Arroyo said.

Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said that Ermita's statement validated his fear that the SC ruling granting the decision of former Planning Secretary Romulo Neri to invoke executive privilege "will be interpreted as a blanket ruling to cover all declarations of executive privilege and not only focus on the three questions."

Fr. Joe Dizon, convener of the Church group Solidarity Philippines, said the new rule imposed by Malacañang on congressional inquiries is another attempt "to use the power of the State to escape responsibility."

He said that the new rule could be in the same breath as that of the scrapped Executive Order 464 and Memorandum Circular 108.

PALACE STANDS FIRM

Ermita, in a radio interview, said the Palace has not completely barred cabinet members from congressional inquiries but it would depend on whether some form of arrangements or ground rules would be set and which should be made public.

Ermita said prior to his announcement on Sunday he consulted the Office of the President's legal division.

Deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez said even if cabinet members are allowed by the Palace to attend the hearings these inquiries would still be considered as "unofficial" and even "null and void" unless a set of rules is published.

DOUBLE STANDARD

Speaker Prospero Nograles accused senators of having a double standard.

"The Senate has won cases in the Supreme Court and the senators heaped praises. If against them, they won't respect?" he said in a statement.

"Decisions must be respected or this will result in chaos in the society," he said.

Rep. Edcel Lagman (Lakas, Albay), chair of the House committee on appropriations, said the senators' comments are "completely intolerable."

"Why submit to the judicial process only to attack the institution after losing the battle?" he said. - Dennis Gadil, Gerard Naval, Jocelyn Montemayor and Wendell Vigilia



First: Acts 4:32-37
Resp: Psalm 93:1-2,5
Gospel: John 3:7-15

Today's Reflection on the Mass