Senators spent 35 hours on ZTE probe this year

[pandisal]

---

This is interesting...

Senators spent 35 hours on ZTE probe this year
By Aurea Calica
Friday, March 14, 2008

The Senate has spent more than 35 hours in public hearings on the national broadband network (NBN) scandal while more than 17 hours were spent for plenary sessions regarding the passage of bills since February, records from the chamber’s journals showed.

In February, senators devoted 26 hours and two minutes for the investigation on the alleged overpricing and bribery on the canceled $329-million NBN contract of the government with China’s ZTE Corp., and nine hours and 30 minutes more this month.

For plenary deliberations, the senators spent 12 hours and nine minutes in February and more than five hours in March.

While the time spent on the hearings were double the time devoted to passing bills, senators said they could not ignore the anomalies in government as it was their duty to look into these as part of the check and balance among branches of government.

In a statement, Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. said the chamber had not been remiss in its duties to legislate despite the investigations.

The Senate passed the budget for 2008 and 23 other bills since the opening of the first regular session. Congress has gone into recess and will resume session on April 28.

While on break, Villar said he authorized the chairmen of the various Senate committees to hold public hearings on priority matters referred to them after the Holy Week.

“We take pride in what we do in the Senate. We conduct investigations, ratify treaties and deliberate on legislative proposals, while taking time to appear before the Supreme Court and defend our mandate as a legislature under the Constitution,” Villar said.

Villar reiterated the Senate position to let the Supreme Court rule on the constitutionality of former National Economic and Development Authority director general Romulo Neri’s request for executive privilege to evade more questions from senators regarding the NBN deal.

Villar said the Senate position to reject the compromise offered by the SC was supported by legal luminaries such as Fr. Joaquin Bernas, former chief justice Artemio Panganiban, former SC associate justice Isagani Cruz and noted opinion-makers.

The SC suggested that Neri, now chairman of the Commission on Higher Education, should attend Senate hearings but refer certain questions to the Court to decide if the issue is covered by executive privilege or the confidentiality of information protected by the Constitution.

Taken from PhilStar

Flamed on!

One of the comments from this article IMO is true...:

bisdakko (Mar 14 2008 01:48:35)
35 hours and then what so far anong legislation ba pweding magawa nitong investigation..i knew it from the start na this investigation has not served its purpose...mga senador, gumawa na kayo ng mba bills..sayang ang pera ng taong bayan...di ba graft and corrution din yan? paying u this much pero ur not working on your job description...sen. meriam santiago was right from the start..this has been a confict of aborted kickbacks....

[digitalsuperman]

mao nang pabor gyud ko nga i-abolish nang senate kay wala man gyud na silay gamit..wala silay gi represent then dako pa gyud kaayo ug pork barrel..

[dawg]

traynta e singko oras!!!

maayo unta ug naay kaayohan nga mogawas aning probe nila. makahimo unta silag paagi para dili na ta malutsan ug corruption. ang paet ani kung gigamit lang unya ni para pa pogi points sa ubang senador para free ads para 2010 elections.

[omar50071]

If it wasnt for these senators, we would have been paying debts we did not enjoy worth 130 Million Dollars, that is equivalent to more or less 6 Billion pesos. Mr. Abalos would have remained chairman in comelec and got away with our money.

[godsaint]

Its just a waste of money and time..By the way these inquiry is only for their pogi points.

[Rance]

Actually those opposition senators can be blamed because they are dragging the senate to and bring up the ZTE scandal to other senators who are supposed to be working on real problems like education, infrastructure, employment, peace and order, encourage FDI and other important things that the governent should be doing.

There should be no partisan for the Filipino people obviously, the folks from Estrada's camp mostly the opposition senators are pressured why? because di na ma sila maka continue ug kurakot! ilang mga illegal sauna sakpan naman! that's why they are using their position to bring down the governance of Mrs. Arroyo.. that's what they are all fighting for.

[zebuana]

hahahahaha! preha raman na sila tanan mga naay mga personal agenda. gloria resign!

[clydepatrick]

It is part of the powers of the Senate to inquire into issues which are significant to the public interest the only limitation to that power is IT MUST BE DONE IN AID OF LEGISLATION..Once they have finished these inquiries, what will happen next?Will there be a new law to be passed?I think we have enough laws to remedy these problems such as R.A 3019..The thing is that the implementation is the real problem...Bring ZTE scandal to court!!

[balatucan]

35 hours spent on NBN ZTE probe. So what? Thats nothing compared to the 6.5 billion peso kickback by GMA and her husband Mike.

[ddemmon]

what a waste of time. the senate should have focused on problem solving and not on trying to find who to blame. they are still focused on blaming gma so they can get rid of her. they are putting so much effort in trying to find a witness to connect gma but all they have "he said this and that..." why not focus on solving the problem, trying to find the loopholes in the law they made so that not only gma can do this again but also the future presidents.