MANILA – Sen. Imee Marcos challenged Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin to bring absent Cabinet officials to her next hearing on the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Marcos, who chaired the Senate committee on foreign relations, said concerned government officials must appear to her committee if they are not hiding anything about the arrest of the former Chief Executive.
“Ang hamon ko lang ay bring them here sa Senado,” Marcos said. “Walang dumalo sa ating pagdinig. Hindi nila dininig ang pulso ng bayan. Paano uusad kung mismo ang dapat magpaliwanag ay nagtatago sa dilim.”
Bersamin invoked Executive Order (EO) 464, which provides for executive privilege, classifying the communication between the Chief Executive and Cabinet officials and the President’s advisers as privileged communications not for public disclosure, for the absence of cabinet members.
“Nirerespeto ko ang doktrina ng executive privilege pero pakantandaan natin hindi ito puwedeng gamitin bilang blanket shield, pangkalahatang pantago, para ilagan ang tanong at umiwas sa paanyaya ng Senado,” Marcos said.
“Hidden truths are unspoken lies. Ang katotohonang tinatago ay kasinunggalingan din. At mukhang ganu’n ang nangyayari ngayon sa pagtatago ng katotohan gamit ang executive privilege at sub judice, nagmimustula tuloy may cover up sa mga nangyayari,” she added.
Bersamin, in a separate interview, defended the government’s decision to bar Cabinet officials from attending the investigation most of the topics that would likely be discussed would come under executive privilege.
“When we learned about the topics, kasi ‘yung invitation ni Sen. Imee was quite specific about the topics. So we had a look at this invitation and we determined that there were many probable or likely topics na covered by those matters that could come under ‘yung executive privilege,” Bersamin said.
Marcos earlier said that the arrest of Duterte on March 11, on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, violated the rights of the former president.
Duterte was flown to The Hague after his arrest and was placed in detention at the Hague Penitentiary Institution or the Scheveningen Prison for charges against him related to the killings under his administration’s war on drugs./PN
