SC requires answer to petition vs order barring Cabinet from attending Senate probe

The Supreme Court (SC) has required Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to respond to the petition seeking to invalidate the order barring Cabinet officials from attending the legislative probe into the government’s COVID-19 spending. 

High tribunal spokesperson Brian Hosaka said Wednesday the respondents were required to file their comments on the Senate’s petition and plea for a stay order within 30 days of receipt of the resolution. 

“The filing and service of the said comment through personal service,” Hosaka said in a message to GMA News Online.

In its petition, the Senate said the October 4 memorandum issued by Medialdea infringes on the chamber’s prerogatives, prevents one of its organs from exercising its constitutional power to conduct inquiries in aid of legislation, and impedes the full exercise of the Senate’s plenary legislative power.

The Senate also said that the SC previously ruled in the case of Senate vs. Ermita that the executive branch “cannot frustrate the power of Congress to legislate by refusing to comply with its demands for information.” 

It said that the memorandum order “does exactly what Senate v. Ermita said the executive department could not.”

The memo argued that the Senate probe had reached a point where the participation of individuals under the executive department had greatly affected the government’s ability to fulfill its mandate amid the pandemic, echoing President Rodrigo Duterte’s earlier pronouncements.

It also accused the Senate of overstepping its authority in its efforts to hold people accountable.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, and Blue Ribbon committee chairman Senator Richard Gordon signed the petition. — VBL, GMA News

SC requires answer to petition vs order barring Cabinet from attending Senate probe
Source: Filipino Viral News PH