SC Reversal of Neri Decision Not Impossible, Says Pimentel

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said “it may be difficult but
not impossible” to convince the Supreme Court to
reverse its ruling on the Neri case which he branded
as a “grave mistake.”

Pimentel said the high court’s ruling on the case was
based on a number of erroneous premises as he
expressed the hope that the tribunal’s members who
ruled in favor of Neri’s petition will see this once
the Senate files its motion for reconsideration.

“The filing of a motion for reconsideration is not
only prudent. I think it is necessary for purposes of
historical records. I think it is important that
majority of the justices, nine of them, will have to
be confronted with the facts as we see them,” he told
the Kapihan sa Senado.

By a 9-6 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that
Commission on Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri
could not be compelled by the Senate to reveal his
conversations with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
on the national broadband network-ZTE deal by virtue
of executive privilege.

Pimentel said the decision prevents the Senate from
unraveling the truth behind the tainted transaction
which may amount to a “coverup of wrongdoing.”

“Is it possible that we can change the minds of the
justices? I would say it is difficult. But it is not
impossible. It may be improbable, but not necessarily
impossible. If the facts are laid clear to them that
the majority conclusion are erroneous. And that is
what the motion for reconsideration will attempt to
do,” he said.

The minority leader said the high tribunal erred when
it faulted the Senate for allegedly failing to publish
its in-house rules on investigation.

Pimentel said these rules have been published in
national newspapers and can be found in the Senate’s
website. But since the Senate is a continuing body, he
said there is no need to republish them every time a
new set of 12 senators is elected into office.

“The Senate does not end with the termination of every
congressional term. Unlike the House of
Representatives whose term ends completely every three
years, the Senate is a continuing body,” he explained.

“The rules of the Senate continue for as long as the
Senate is in place. Meaning to say, there is no need
to republish them unless there are changes that have
been made.”

Pimentel praised Chief Justice Reynato Puno for his
forceful dissenting opinion in which he warned that
the majority decision would unduly weaken the
legislative branch.

But he said Puno’s pro-Senate stance should not be
made a gauge for measuring the prospects for success
of the motion for reconsideration to be filed by the
chamber.

“Whether we succeed or not, the important things is,
for the purposes of records, the Senate will be seen
as fighting to the very end in the assertion of our
powers and duties, rather than giving way to this
erroneous decision which says that the private rights
of Neri can trump the powers of the Senate as defined
in the Constitution. To begin with, Neri is not the
one entitled to Executive Privilege, it’s Gloria,” he
said.

Pimentel said the implications of the SC ruling in
terms emasculating the investigate powers of Congress
are so far-reaching that even some House members have
criticized the decision even if they are not a party
to the case.
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