ROXAS, AQUINO FILE PETITION WITH SC TO NULLIFY EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE OVER NEDA DOCS ON NBN DEAL

Senators Mar Roxas and Noynoy Aquino today asked the Supreme Court to compel NEDA Director General Augusto Santos and Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita to submit to the Senate all NEDA transcripts and documents related to the NBN project.

The two senators, through their legal counsels, Dean Pacifico Agabin and Atty. Joel Cadiz, said executive privilege cannot be invoked to stonewall against the Senate's request for a copy of the NEDA-ICC board meeting minutes and project evaluation report on the NBN deal since national security is not involved.

"We have to lift the veil on these documents to appreciate the issues in their totality and come up with timely legislation to protect the public interest," Roxas and Aquino said, adding that the people have to right to know how the broadband project was evaluated and approved by the NEDA and the Joint Investment Coordination Committee (ICC).

They cited Section 7, Article III of the Constitution, which states that the right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized. The petition also cited Section 1, Article XI, which states: "Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees, must, at all times, be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives."

In his letter to Director General Augusto Santos dated September 27, 2007, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita informed the NEDA chief that discussions in closed-door Cabinet NEDA meetings are considered executive privilege. Thereafter, the NEDA Secretary cited the Ermita letter to deny the request of the Senate joint committees for the minutes of the NEDA-ICC meeting on the NBN project as well as the Project Evaluation Report.

Senators Roxas and Aquino disagreed with the invocation of executive privilege by Ermita and Santos, on four main grounds:

1. It infringes upon the constitutional power of inquiry vested in Congress;

2. No valid ground for the invocation of executive privilege and hence, there can be no just recognition of the same.

3. Executive privilege does not extend to criminal activities like the bribery allegations of unprecedented magnitude involved in the NBN project, pursuant to the ruling of the Supreme Court in Almonte VS. Vasquez, GR No.l 95367 and United States VS Nixon, 418 U.S. 683(1974).

4. The information and documents subject of the supoena duces tecum are matters of paramount public interest and issues of great national concern and significance, which should not be defeated by the mere unqualified invocation of executive privilege.

"Further, the justification put up by the respondents that disclosure of the minutes of the closed-door meetings of the NEDA on the NBN project would strain diplomatic relations with China overlooks the fact that the Senate also plays a crucial role in the conduct of foreign relations," the two solons said, citing the Senate's role in ratifying international agreements.

The two senators also pointed out that legislation would benefit from a review of the documents since these contain specific information and examples of how the current system of project evaluation and approval has failed the people.

Counsels Pacifico Agabin of Agabin Verzola Hermoso & Layaoen and Jose Anselmo Cadiz of Cadiz & Tabayoyong law firm accompanied the two senators.