KIKO ON THE MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION AND INHIBITION
"We are pinning our hopes that the High Tribunal will seriously consider our Motion
for Reconsideration" --- Kiko Pangilinan

Incumbent and retired Supreme Court justices, as well as legal luminaries, are optimistic that the High Tribunal will take a second hard look on its recent decision essentially favoring executive privilege over the Senate's power of inquiry, Senate Majority Leader and Independent senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan today said.

"No less than incumbent Chief Justice Reynato Puno and former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban have expressed very strong opinions against the majority decision favoring Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman Romulo Neri's invocation of executive privilege. Justice Puno even wrote a dissenting opinion. Father Joaquin Bernas, a member of the Constitutional Commission and an acknowledged constitutionalist, describes said decision as one that cripples the Senate. They, who aren't Senators have strongly opposed the ruling, we in the Senate cannot oppose it any less. We are pinning our hopes that the High Tribunal will seriously consider our Motion for Reconsideration," Kiko said.

Kiko emphasized that continuing legal efforts are not being done for the benefit of individual senators, but for the Senate as an institutional mechanism of democracy.

"Faced with the prospects of becoming crippled, should we, as Senators, not vigorously fight the Neri decision, looking at all possible legal remedies including inhibition to defend the Senate's constitutional role both as a co-equal and as a check and balance on the executive? We must defend a constitution and the rule of law. It is our sworn duty to do so mightily, employing all means and legal to achieve this noble purpose," Kiko said.

Three justices of the Supreme Court are being called to inhibit themselves. Justice Arturo Brion voted in favor of Neri, even if he was not yet part of the Supreme Court when the case was heard. Justice Renato Corona's wife is said to be a presidential appointee. Justice Presbitero Velasco, on the one hand, is reported to have played golf with Neri.