Neri knocks the prop
from NEDA and Malacañang

CHED officer-in-charge Romulo Neri Wednesday knock off the claim by acting NEDA Chief Augusto Santos against revealing the details of the deliberations by the agency on the $329-million National Broadband Network deal.

It may also be pertinent at this juncture to point out that Chief Presidential Legal Adviser Cecilio Apostol had earlier claimed executive privilege in turning down the requests from the Senate to disclose details by the NEDA that led to the NBN contract.

The Senate had already warned that it would compel Santos to produce the controversial documents and, if they refuse, will not hesitate to enforce its rules to ensure compliance.

In effect, that could lead to a square off between Malacanang and the upper chamber on the issue of executive privilege. Incidentally, that has evoked from Senator Panfilo Lacson the point - the NEDA excuse could be part of a frantic over up. "They are hiding anew behind the cloak of executive privilege" was how he put it.

But if Neri asserted that the deliberations by NEDA are in the website, there seems to be no reason for the Senate to insist on NEDA's acting head to produce the documents covering said deliberations.

Unless, of course, the senators are after non-accessible information than those found in the Internet.

Time for the Senate to test the executive privilege issue before the Supreme Court.

***

Even if he were an asset of the Philippine Army, Trino Belleza had no business threatening ABS-CBN cameraman Ruel Bangoy with a gun in Barangay 17.

Belleza was nabbed later by policemen under SPO1 Vicente Canuday, Jr. He is currently lodged in a police holding cell.

Belleza claimed that he was an agent of the Military Intelligence Group (MIG). But he had no papers to prove his contention nor the necessary documents to show that he had the authority to carry firearms.

And, granted that he is an MIG agent, the more reason that he should have acted with circumspection. He is supposed to also protect citizens as well as mediamen. Yet, he had reportedly threatened Bangoy with his .45 caliber pistol.

His superiors (if any as claimed) should come forward and have him dismissed from the service if Belleza is truly their man.

The military has been the focus of accusations of having been behind the series of summary killings of civilians and mediamen. For that matter, on record, several policemen, military men, have been found to have a hand in such salvaging which the government has failed to account for.

Time for the police to file the corresponding charges against Belleza. And throw the book at him.

***

All's well between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and House Speaker Jose de Venecia. So they say and even their pictures side by side aims to convince the public that there is no rift between the two.

But that bribe offer to Rep. Crispin Beltran of Anakbayan by Francis Ver, deputy secretary general of the KAMPI, is suspicious.

Predictably, DILG Secretary R. Puno dismissed Ver's attempt to convince Beltran and several other solons to endorse the impeachment complaint against Arroyo as a private enterprise.

I suspect that it was an after-the-fact decision to oust him as deputy secretary general. I sincerely believe that nobody that high up in the party echelon could have hatched a bizarre idea on his own, considering that he, personally, does not have the money to fund his bribe offers.

And, the most important thing to remember is that several other solons confirmed having received similar offers as Beltran.

So, what actually gives?

When De Venecia had blurted out that the complaint could have indicted him as much as President Arroyo, that could have been the intent of that maneuver. To pin down the Speaker rather than GMA.

But they got caught with their pants down. Thus, Ver had to be given up as a sacrificial lamb.

That gives both sides the opportunity to proclaim that they are still that close to each other.

Oh, well, the games politicians play. Unfortunately, the public is no longer as foolish as to believe that what they see is what it is.

The other side to the impeachment issue is that it could be thrown out, as De Veneia contends. But that also gives time to the House to iron out its deficiencies and come up with something more in substance. That means, give it a big chance to win the votes of the House if worse comes to worst.*

back to top