‘GMA has reduced Congress to a rubber-stamp agency’

President Arroyo has reduced Congress to a rubber-stamp agency like the Batasang Pambansa during the Marcos regime by issuing the controversial Executive Order 464, Rep. Satur Ocampo of the militant party-list group Bayan Muna said yesterday.

He said with EO 464, the President has thrown a "monkey wrench" into the system of checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution.

"The obvious objective is to stonewall all legitimate investigations by Congress, deprive the people of the right to know and make high public officials unaccountable for their acts," he said.

He added that EO 464 promotes unaccountability and lack of transparency.

The presidential issuance bars Cabinet members and other officials, including military and police personnel, from appearing in Senate investigations. Two weeks ago, the President expanded the coverage of the ban to include budget hearings and confirmation proceedings of the Commission on Appointments (CA).

She later lifted the prohibition on appearances in budget hearings and CA proceedings after senators warned her that they would sit on her proposed P1-trillion outlay for 2006, whose approval has already been delayed by at least two months, and to reject all pending Cabinet appointments.

The Senate has lodged a formal challenge against EO 464 with the Supreme Court. Sen. Joker Arroyo argued yesterday before justices that the order was unconstitutional, saying it neutralized the powers of oversight and investigation reserved for Congress.

Besides the Senate, several other groups, including Ocampo’s Bayan Muna and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, have petitioned the High Tribunal to strike down EO 464.

While senators are up in arms against the presidential issuance, some leaders of the House of Representatives are trying to justify it, despite the fact that the ban on appearances by Cabinet members and other executive officials also covers their chamber, at least in theory.

Majority Leader Prospero Nograles said Senator Arroyo may be correct in saying EO 464 has made Mrs. Arroyo’s rule a "quasi-dictatorship" but claimed that the President has a right to protect her Cabinet members from being "embarrassed and "castigated" at Senate hearings.

"It’s a legitimate defense to protect the dignity of those who appear before Congress. They appear as the alter ego of the President and must be treated with respect for the Office of the President," he said.

It’s not only Cabinet members who have refused to appear in Senate inquiries. Even lower-level officials and their underlings have defied Senate summonses. — Jess Diaz