The Senate may now continue its stalled deliberation on the P1.05 trillion budget for this year after Malacañang relaxed a presidential order banning executive and other government officials from attending congressional hearings without first seeking President Arroyo’s consent, Senate President Fraklin Drilon said yesterday.

The expanded application of Executive Order 464 to include attendance at Senate budget deliberations and Commission on Appointments hearings sparked a bitter confrontation between the Legislature and the Executive Department last week.

It also threatened the passage of the 2006 national budget, senators said.

But Mrs. Arroyo’s sudden change of heart on the matter, Senate President Franklin Drilon said, would now enable the chamber to finally wrap up the appropriation of remaining government agencies that have yet to defend their budget allocations.

Last week, the heads of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) begged off from attending the hearings because they failed to secure presidential clearance. With the lifting of the expanded EO 464, however, the Senate can now expect the attendance of OPS and DILG officials in this week’s budget hearings.

Other agencies, such as the Department of Energy (DoE), are also expected to defend their respective budget before the Senate this week. The Department of Justice (DoJ) and other Executive Department Offices such as the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) and the National Security Council (NSC) are lined up in today’s deliberations.

In a statement released yesterday, Drilon expressed elation that Malacañang had backed out from its earlier position banning government officials from attending budget hearings without presidential clearance, saying it was a good decision on the part of the President.

"President Arroyo must have realized that EO 464 has absolutely no legal, political, and constitutional basis at all," said Drilon, a lawyer and the DoJ chief during former President Corazon Aquino’s term.

Drilon insisted that Mrs. Arroyo should immediately revoke the controversial EO because it is illegal.

Administration Sen. Mar Roxas likewise commended the Palace for its decision to relax its stand towards disallowing executive officials in congressional hearings unless the President approves of it first.

"I am glad that the President’s better judgment prevailed over the hotheads around her. We (senators) believe that EO 464 should be revoked or be immediately resolved by the Supreme Court," Roxas said in a text message.

Roxas stressed that the Executive Department cannot unilaterally put congressional hearings on hold simply because the President doesn’t believe in the conduct or purpose of the hearings. "Accountability through congressional oversight is the heart of (democracy)," he said.

Drilon agreed with Roxas’ observation that Palace officials have no basis for saying that the Senate budget hearings were only being used to query government officials with politically loaded questions.

"The claim that the Senate was politicizing the budget hearings with intention of destabilizing the government is another outright lie consistently being peddled by this paranoid administration," Drilon said.

The Senate president was referring to an earlier statement by Presidential Chief of Staff Mike Defensor who claimed that senators were only interested in asking political matters rather than the budget.

Senators from both the majority and the minority block rejected Defensor’s observation. Drilon defended the conduct of the budget deliberations, saying the Senate has the obligation to ask probing questions on resource persons.

"These (hearings) are basically questions about how public funds were being utilized by the executive department," he said.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel said Mrs. Arroyo should refrain from imposing limitations on how the Senate should conduct itself in the budget hearings.

"Everything we ask is related to the budget. They should stop telling us not to ask questions relative to the abuses that have been committed in their turf’s (departments)," Pimentel said over the weekend.

Opposition Sen. Jamby Madrigal likewise stressed the independence of the Senate, noting that the Legislature is a co-equal branch of the Executive Department.

Malacañang seeks ‘constructive working ties’ with Senate

By FERDIE J. MAGLALANG

Malacañang expressed yesterday openness to what it called "a constructive working relationship" with the Senate, notably in pushing for the immediate enactment into law of the 2006 P1.053-trillion national budget now under congressional deliberations.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, also presidential spokesman, issued the statement after President Arroyo backtracked from her recent directive barring all Cabinet men from attending budget hearings pending the Supreme Court’s ruling on Executive Order 464.

"We are for a constructive working relationship between the legislative and executive branches," he said, mindful of the soured relationship between Malacañang and the Senate.

"We believe that all outstanding issues, especially one as important as the budget, can be resolved through statesmanship and consensus. Legislative-executive cooperation for the national interest is our goal," he said.

Political pundits earlier feared that the protracted stand-off between Mrs. Arroyo and the senators would further delay the passage of the proposed P1.-53-trillion national budget.

The stand-off was precipitated by the President’s issuance of EO 464 which bars all Cabinet officials, including senior military and police officers, from testifying before any congressional inquiries.

At least 17 of the 23 senators have questioned the constitutionality and legality of EO 464 before the High Tribunal. Oral argument among proponents and opponents of the controversial directive is expected to be heard this week.

Pending the court’s ruling, Mrs. Arroyo has expanded the coverage of EO 464 to include budget deliberations and confirmation hearings. She, however, has withdrawn her directive, allowing her officials to attend budget hearings conducted by the Senate.

"Executive Order 464, however, will remain in effect especially for legislative inquiries which are deemed unproductive and clearly motivated by self-serving politics," Bunye said.

In issuing EO 464, Mrs. Arroyo prevented senators, especially those belonging from the Senate minority bloc, from using their legislative powers to probe the alleged electoral fraud and other anomalies linking the President.

According to its critics, EO 464 has practically clipped Congress’ powers to exercise its oversight functions in checking the performance of the Executive branch of the government, including transactions it has entered into.

As a "parliamentary maneuver" to skirt around EO 464, the Senate has convened itself into a Committee of the Whole to allow opposition senators the chance to probe Cabinet officials summoned to defend their respective department’s budget.

Malacañang alleged that the Senate is forcing some Cabinet officials to answer questions about certain controversies which are subject of ongoing Senate investigations.

Senate must complement Malacanang’s show of good faith, Arroyo allies say

Administration lawmakers yesterday welcomed the decision by Malacañang to allow Cabinet members to appear in the Senate budget hearing which they said was a show of good faith which would hopefully be complemented by senators by sticking to the budget details instead of using the hearings to conduct their pet investigations.

Lakas-CMD Reps. Monico Puentevella (Bacolod City), chairman of the House committee on transportation, and Marcelino Libanan (Eastern Samar), vice chairman of the committee on justice, said Malacanang’s decision was obviously made to avert an institutional fight with the Senate.

Puentevella and Libanan said it was wrong for senators to imply that President Arroyo blinked first because the main issue of the Palace-Senate row, namely EO 464, remains in effect pending the Supreme Court’s ruling on its constitutionality.

Puentevella said that with her latest move, the President has shown that her administration strongly adheres to the principles of unity and reconciliation. "The administration is not insensitive to the need to let Cabinet members justify to Congress the budgets of their departments," he said.

The good faith shown by Malacanang on the Senate, Puentevella said, must be complemented by senators. He urged the senators to focus on the budget details and treat the attending Cabinet officials with respect. "This still remains to be seen but we also have faith in the sense of fairness and statesmanship of our colleagues in the Senate," he added.