SC: No abuse of discretion over Senate report on POTC, PHILCOMSAT

The Supreme Court ruled that the Senate did not commit a grave abuse of discretion amounting to a lack of jurisdiction when it approved a June 2007 committee report on the Philippine Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (POTC) and the Philippine Communications Satellite Corporation (PHILCOMSAT). The report, which stemmed from an even earlier 2006 resolution filed by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, said that the Presidential Commission on Good Government was supposed to have control of the two companies, but instead mismanaged them to a loss of P7 million even as they had “huge operating expenses". However, PCGG nominees to the board of directors of both POTC and PHILCOMSAT Enrique L. Locsin and Manuel D. Andal filed a petition before the SC questioning, among other things, the haste with which the Senate approved the report. In its ruling, the high court said, "The legislative power to conduct inquiries in aid of legislation must carry with it all powers necessary and proper for its effective discharge." The court stressed the Senate's constitutional mandate to conduct legislative inquiries and that it "cannot be faulted" for approving the committee report on the same day The report The report, Senate Committee Report No. 312, was made by the Senate Committees on Government Corporations and Public Enterprises and on Public Services and submitted to the Senate on June 7, 2007. In their investigation done in aid of legislation, the committee declared that the PCGG and its nominees committed "overwhelming mismanagement" of the government's shares in the Philippine Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (POTC) and the Philippine Communications Satellite Corporation (PHILCOMSAT). The investigation was prompted by Senator Miriam Santiago's Proposed Senate Resolution No. 455 directing the conduct of a probe in light of losses incurred by the POTC, Philcomsat, and Philcomsat Holdings Corp. As a result of the probe, the Senate committee report recommended the privatization and the transfer of jurisdiction over the government shares from the PCGG to the Privatization Management Office under the Department of Finance. The report also recommended the replacement of PCGG government nominees as directors of POTC and PHILCOMSAT. — DVM, GMA News