SC to determine coverage of Arroyo's 'executive privilege'

Chief Justice Reynato Puno on Wednesday said the Supreme Court will discuss next week the coverage of the “executive privilege" being enjoyed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and members of her Cabinet. The high court will hold oral arguments on Tuesday on the petition filed by Commission on Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri whether his conversations with President Arroyo on the controversial national broadband project are covered by the privilege, Puno said. Neri was the former director general of National Economic Development Authority (NEDA). “The doctrine of executive privilege is in the Constitution," Puno said, adding even the President cannot scrap it. “The problem is how to delineate the parameters of the privilege," he said. He said that in the case of Neri the high court will determine “what communications of the President are included in the executive privilege." “It's a new issue," Puno said. He said that while it is unlikely that the executive privilege will soon be revoked, its coverage can be set. Supreme Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez told GMANews.TV that the oral arguments will be the only venue to hear the petition filed by Neri. Marquez said the court will come up with a ruling days after the oral arguments. He did not set a date. Puno was the keynote speaker at the three-day meeting on impunity and press freedom organized by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility on Wednesday. The executive privilege has been used by the President and by members of her Cabinet as an excuse to dodge congressional inquiries into alleged anomalies committed by top government officials. - Mark Meruenas, GMANews.TV