Resurrecting EO 464 FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 07/12/2010

Resurrecting EO 464

FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 07/12/2010 Reports say that the Palace is studying the possible lifting of Executive Order 464 (EO 464), better known as the gag rule imposed by Gloria Arroyo which successfully prevented Cabinet members and other administration officials from testifying before Congress and its probe bodies, unless they have the written permission and approval of the president. Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. was quoted as saying, during a press briefing Friday, that the Palace legal team is carefully studying whether or not to retain the controversial order. “Everything is being studied. There are many things that we do not know that we are now discovering over time. We really want to get the right formula from ideas formulated and are now validating against realities in the office and that is totally different.” If memory serves, EO 464, under the Panganiban high court, was struck down in the sense that it upheld the right of Congress to summon the Cabinet members. However, during the Puno court’s reign, the majority of the Supreme Court (SC) justices, said to have been controlled by Malacañang by that time, overturned the earlier decision and favored the Palace, which now prevents the Cabinet members from appearing and testifying before Congress, when summoned — which caused a lot of frustration from the Senate. But if memory serves again, EO 464 was lifted by Gloria, although this was replaced with a memorandum circular that now included all officers and employees from the executive department from being summoned by Congress, without the permission from the President.   Still, Gloria’s lifting of her EO does not necessarily translate to its no longer being the law, as this has already been ruled upon by the SC, favoring Malacañang. There is, however, yet another ruling by the high court, whose ponente, then Associate Justice Dante Tinga, declared that no military officer can be made to testify before Congress, as it is the commander-in-chief, who is also the president, who has the absolute say on whether the military officers can appear and testify in Congress. What all these rulings mean is that these stay, unless and until the new administration brings this up to the court to come up with new rulings on this issue and overturn the old rulings.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100712com2.html

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