Blanket gag order on Neri ‘lifted in principle’ – Palace

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang on Monday admitted that a blanket gag order on Romulo Neri is lifted “in principle" because of the scrapping of the disputed Executive Order 464 last March 6. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo can no longer prevent Neri from attending the next hearing on the national broadband network deal with China’s ZTE Corp. Bunye said the President would “go by the spirit of the revocation of EO (Executive Order) 464." “In principle, yes (the President will allow the former National Economic and Development Authority Director-General to appear)," he added. Neri has invoked executive privilege on questions on his conversations with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regarding the ZTE deal. He filed a petition at the Supreme Court to stop the Senate from arresting him after he refused to heed summons. The high tribunal would hand down a ruling before the end of the month. The Senate had chance to hear Neri on the witness stand but it rejected the Supreme Court compromise for senators to grill Neri on the NBN project except for those awaiting settlement. Last weekend, Brother Mariano “Mike" Velarde, head of the Catholic charismatic group El Shaddai, urged Mrs Arroyo to allow Neri to testify in the Senate's ongoing investigation during the El Shaddai's Palm Sunday Mass in Parañaque City, which the President also attended. After the Mass, the President thanked El Shaddai members for supporting her, praying with her and even giving her advice for the past 16 years or since she started attending in 1992. Bunye dismissed claims that the relationship between the Philippines and the United States is being affected by the controversy, stressing that even US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney has even denied this. “This alleged effect on the US government has been denied by the US ambassador herself. I guess that's reasonable stand to make. We agree with the stand of the US ambassador that this has not affected our relations," he said. Walter Lohman, Heritage Foundation director for Asian Studies Center, said the US government should help the Philippines, which is one of its ally in the Asia Pacific region, in averting a possible constitutional crisis in the Philippines as a result of the alleged corruption involved in the NBN-ZTE deal. Lohman said this “massive scandal" has now “driven politics in the Philippines off the rails." “What is alarming about these cases is the possibility that corruption in the Philippines may have reached the point of trampling national interest," he added. Lohman said that one way of helping the Philippines address doing this is through “the recent decision by the Millennium Challenge Corporation to qualify the Philippines for ‘large-scale grant funding’ is a major step to that end. Above all, the US must be crystal clear that it supports the constitutional order in the Philippines." - GMANews.TV