Palace EO 464 revoked, but executive privilege under review

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang clarified yesterday that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had already revoked Executive Order 464 and Memorandum Circular 108 and that the new administration would only review the use of executive privilege in congressional inquiries.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said President Aquino has not issued any specific order yet on the matter and that he was speaking in general terms when asked about executive privilege.

EO 464 banned senior government, military and police officials from testifying in congressional hearings without the President’s approval.”

Everything is being studied, we are worried that there might be things we need to do. There were a lot of things that we did not know about and which we’re finding out (just now),” Ochoa said.

“We really want to get the right formula. We have ideas before that we are now validating against realities in the office and that’s totally different,” Ochoa said.

The STAR reported that EO 464 had not been fully lifted because the Supreme Court upheld some portions of the order. But EO 151 issued on March 6, 2008 showed that the controversial EO 464 had been revoked along with MC 108.

The Senate had raised EO 464 before the SC to question its legality as it curtailed Congress’ powers to investigate irregularities involving the executive branch.

The Senate said it was part of check and balance in government.

The SC later nullified a provision in the EO prohibiting officials under the executive department from appearing at hearings of Congress without the consent of the President.

The Court, however, upheld the right of the President to forbid executive officials from attending the question hour of the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as the right to request for a closed-door session if the information involved matters of national security.

Various Arroyo officials had cited the EO to snub congressional inquiries on the “Hello, Garci” poll fraud scam, the P728-million fertilizer fund scandal and the North Rail project. 

When EO 464 was lifted, officials of the Arroyo administration then invoked executive privilege, including former National Economic and Development Authority director general Romulo Neri, who refused to discuss Arroyo’s role in the national broadband network deal controversy between the government and Chinese firm ZTE Corp.