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Senate President Manuel Villar yesterday said the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing former socioeconomic secretary Romulo Neri to invoke executive privilege suppresses the truth and endangers democracy, but added “We will not give up on this, we will continue to fight.”

The Senate probe into the controversial national broadband deal is more than just an investigation, it is the future of the country at stake, said Villar, who spoke at the Carlos Hilado Memorial State College graduation rites in Bacolod City.

Villar said Senate investigations are needed, not just to ferret out the truth in the NBN deal, but to put a stop to billions of dollars being stolen from the nation’s coffers through various other projects.

“The Senate has passed all the bills the President asked us to pass, but the one thing we will not do is stop the Senate hearings,” he said.

While the President controls the House of Representatives and practically all institutions, and now even part of the media, the Church, local governments and the Supreme Court, Villar said that, so long as he is president of the Senate it will remain independent.

“We will not be threatened, we will not be cowed, we will not be influenced by anybody…we will continue the task given to us by the Constitution, we will remain firmly independent,” he said.

The Supreme Court, voting 9-6, ruled in favor Neri's plea preventing the Senate from ferreting out the truth in the national broadband network controversy.

The SC ruling stopped the Senate from arresting Neri, a witness in the NBN controversy linking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself and her husband involving allegations of corruption

With the SC ruling the president can do anything, she does not have to explain…she can invoke executive privilege, Villar said.

“What has happened to our country? Have we changed our form of government, are we still a democracy, why can’t we question the President, why can’t we ask her to explain? Can executive privilege be used to cover a crime, have we given our president the license to steal?” Villar asked.

What the Supreme Court did it is like changing our form of government, there is no more check-and-balance, nobody can question the president on what she did, he said.

Villar said he only has three questions for Neri – did the president know about the ZTE deal, did she influence you on the ZTE deal, and when you said you were given P200 million what did the president say?

“I think those questions are reasonable unless the president is hiding something,” he said.

The senate will file a motion for reconsideration to the SC ruling.

Villar said he does not want to say that the President’s appointees in the Supreme Court voted in favor of Neri, he is leaving it to the people to make their own conclusions.

But it is a concern that next year the President will be appointing six more justices of the Supreme Court so almost all of the SC justices will have been appointed by her, Villar said.

Presidential Deputy Spokesman Anthony Golez, who was in Bacolod to speak at the graduation rites of Riverside College in Bacolod City, said the fact that Villar is able to say what he is saying shows that democracy is thriving in the country.

Golez said the decision of the SC should be respected, noting not all of about 13 justices appointed by the president voted in favor of Neri.*CPG