STATEMENT ON SEN. GUINGONA ON JURISDICTIONAL CHALLENGE
"Blue Ribbon Subcommittee may rule on Jurisdictional Challenge"

Today, I conveyed in writing to Senator Koko Pimentel, chair of the Blue Ribbon subcommittee probing governance issues concerning the Makati City officials, that the decision on the Jurisdictional Challenge filed by Mayor Binay and by others who joined him in that petition is a matter which the subcommittee itself must resolve.

I likewise conveyed to Senator Pimentel my view that, until the matter is resolved by the subcommittee with finality, the probe - based on Senate Resolution No. 826 - should be held in abeyance.

The basis for the Blue Ribbon Committee Chair's position that the Subcommittee must rule on the Jurisdictional Challenge is Section 20 of the Senate Rules of Procedure Governing Inquiries in Aid of Legislation.

That particular section states that the subcommittee may perform "any and all acts which the Committee as a whole is authorized to do and perform" with only one single exception.

Included in this scope of Subcommittee powers are Jurisdictional Questions. In this instance, the Jurisdictional Challenge takes on the nature of a Motion for Reconsideration which still falls under the subcommittee's scope of powers to resolve.

The only exception to the powers vested to the subcommittee is the power to punish for contempt. This power remains exclusively in the domain of the Mother Committee, based on Section 20 of the Senate Rules of Procedure Governing Inquiries In Aid of Legislation. Clearly, the power to cite for contempt remains in the hands of the Blue Ribbon Committee.

With the position of the Mother Committee on this issue now made clear, I believe that the resolution of the Jurisdictional Challenge may now proceed with dispatch.