Kiko eyes going solo on bid to inhibit 3 High Court justices

BY DENNIS GADIL

SENATE majority leader Francis Pangilinan is considering going solo in filing a motion to inhibit three justices of the Supreme Court from hearing the Senate’s motion for reconsideration on the issue of executive privilege by former Planning Secretary Romulo Neri.

"Even without reaching a consensus, any senator or a number of senators may opt to file a motion for inhibition," Pangilinan said.

Pangilinan also denied reports that the Senate is abandoning its motion for inhibition of Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Renato Corona and Presbitero Velasco. "Contrary to reports, the issue of inhibition is not dead."

Pangilinan, however, said it still important to seek support of majority senators on the petition for inhibition.

‘’We have until this week to file a motion should a consensus be reached," he said.

Pangilinan said the grounds set forth in the motion for inhibition "are valid and material."

"Justice Arturo Brion was not yet appointed when the petition of Neri invoking executive privilege was heard. Justice Renato Corona’s wife, in a paid advertisement, was reported to have publicly expressed support for President Gloria Arroyo. Mrs. Corona wife is also reported to be a presidential appointee. Justice Presbitero Velasco is said to be petitioner Neri’s golf buddy," he said.

The high court, by a vote of 9-6, last March 25 upheld the decision of Neri to invoke executive privilege. Senators have asked him questions about his conversations with President Arroyo on the cancelled $329 million broadband project with China’s ZTE Corp.

The move to inhibit the three justices fizzled out last week when the petition initiated by Pangilinan and the Senate’s legal team failed to get the required signatories.

Sen. Richard Gordon, who who did not sign the petition, reminded his colleagues that SC justices always enjoy the presumption of impartiality.

"It is a constitutional body... there is no reason for them to be beholden to anybody because they are a co-equal branch of government," he said.

At least nine senators were earlier reported to have signed the petition, including Panfilo Lacson, Jamby Madrigal, Mar Roxas, Pia Cayetano, Alan Peter Cayetano, Jinggoy Estrada and Pangilinan.

The office of Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano has clarified what he signed was the draft of the petition and not the official copy.

Lacson appeared to have also lost interest.

Minority leader Aquilino Pimentel has distanced himself from the petition.

A Senate source said Senate President Manuel Villar and Pimentel had strong reservations about the petition as it might antagonize the high court as a whole and adversely affect their motion for reconsideration which they filed last Tuesday.

Villar and Pimentel left for South Africa to attend the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting without signing the petition.