Task Force studies EO 464 scrapping

Task Force studies EO 464 scrapping


The scrapping of Executive Order No. 464 is easier said than done according to legal luminaries .
It is because removing this control devise as to who among the President’s men or women can testify before congress might just open the floodgates of revealing national secrets and information that borders on security of the state.
Its unnecessary revelation of state secrets can prejudice national security and for what reason. Of course, as congressmen and senators said in their interrogations, all witnesses can at anytime interrupt the probers in order to raise the issue against self-incrimination and the right of executive privilege.
EO 464 is the existing document existing up to the present which provides among others that the presidents men and women in he executive department., are not free to testify before another co-collegial body who without the express approval of the President.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) cannot just scrap Executive Order 464 and unilaterally respond to the call of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to abolish the EO 464 because the DOJ said said, it should first be thoroughly studied, as the DOJ is now studying the matter with the solicitor generals, lawyers of the state.
DOJ says, there are existing laws and jurisprudence that must be seriously considered before coming up with a decision to allow officials of the executive department to appear before any congressional inquiry even without prior consent from the President.
The CBCP, through a pastoral statement, asked the President to scrap the EO 464 and allow concerned officials from the Executive department to testify before the Senate’s ongoing inquiry into the controversial National Broadband Network (NBN) project. The CBCP bishops made the call following renewed allegations of corruption involving the First Couple, business and political allies.
The DOJ secretary said unwarranted disclosure of state secrets by a public officer was also punishable under the Revised Penal Code (RPC) specifically Article 229.
Article 229 provides that "any public officer who shall reveal any secret known to him by reason of his official capacity, or shall wrongfully deliver papers or copies of papers of which he may have charge and which should not be published, shall suffer the penalties of prision cor- reccional in its medium and maximum periods, perpetual special disqualification, and a fine not exceeding 2,000 pesos if the revelation of such secrets or the delivery of such papers shall have caused serious damage to the public interest; otherwise, the penalties of prison correccional in its minimum period, temporary special disqualification and a fine not exceeding 50 pesos shall be imposed."
The team studying the status of EO 464 added and assured the people that cleansing the bureaucracy has been the priority agenda of the Arroyo administration. Noted also is the limitation of congressional probers which is only up to, in aid of legislation. And that It is the courts that will punish the corrupt and not congress.
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