SC upholds Neri again
MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court Thursday upheld its decision that the Senate could not force Romulo Neri to answer three questions about President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's instructions to him in connection with the scrapped $329-million National Broadband Network (NBN) deal on the ground of executive privilege.
Neri was the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority when the NBN deal with China's ZTE Corp. was approved on April 21, 2007.
The three questions that the Senate had asked Neri were whether the President had followed up on the NBN project, whether Neri was told to prioritize it, and whether she told him to approve the deal after being informed of the alleged P200-million bribe offered to him by former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr.
