"My advice to the President’s advisers is: Stop evading us. If you don’t want to face us, you are hiding something. Stop playing games and come out clean," Villar said.

He said the Senate does not want to lose its constitutional powers to look into the implementation of policies by the Executive Department.

Upon the recommendation of independent Sen. Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, chairman of the Senate labor committee, Villar last Tuesday signed subpoenas for two Cabinet members and four officials for them to appear on Monday in the second public inquiry by the Estrada committee on the situation of OFWs seeking repatriation from Beirut, Lebanon, to Manila via Damascus, Syria.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya and Labor Secretary Arturo Brion and four other officials snubbed last Monday’s hearing by the Estrada committee after Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita barred them from attending the hearing.

Aside from Brion and Andaya, subpoenaed to appear Monday before the Estrada committee were Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor of the office of the Executive Secretary; Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr., who is in charge of migrant workers’ affairs; Rosalinda D. Baldoz, chief of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA); and Marianito D. Roque, OWWA administrator.

Following reports quoting Ermita that these officials would not have time again to appear before the Senate committee on Monday because of President Arroyo’s order for a total evacuation of OFWs from Lebanon, Estrada said he would discuss the issue with Villar on Monday whether there is a need for the Senate to have these officials arrested.

"If they will not attend the hearing, the hearing will still push through. The conclusion is that they are really hiding something (about the depleted OWWA funds)," Estrada said.

Asked whether his committee might decide to ask Vice President Noli de Castro to appear on Monday after he was named head of a task force on the repatriation of OFWs from Lebanon, Estrada said, "That is a good idea."

"We will see on Monday," Villar said.

In his letter to Estrada last Monday, Ermita said Brion, Andaya and other officials could not attend the Senate committee hearing because they were busy with the repatriation processes for the OFWs.

Villar appeared irked by the action of these officials who snubbed last Monday’s Senate committee hearing after he saw them appear at a Malacañang news conference to talk on the same issues raised by Estrada and other senators such as Alfredo Lim, Rodolfo G. Biazon, Franklin M. Drilon, and Richard Gordon.The officials who joined the Malacañang press conference held simultaneously with the Senate committee hearing were Brion, Conejos, and Roque.

Reconcile differences, Joker tells Senate and Executive dep’t

Independent Sen. Joker Arroyo yesterday asked the Senate and the Executive Department to reconcile their differences as they are again headed for another Executive-Senate standoff.

This time, the crux of the looming dispute between the two power centers is the alleged depletion of OWWA funds, particularly before the May 2004 presidential election, and the reported disorganized, under-funded repatriation of overseas Filipino workers in battlescarred Lebanon.

"The public is tired and weary of this squabbling," Arroyo said.

The Senate bristled at the continued intransigence of Malacañang in prohibiting Cabinet members and other ranking officials from appearing before congressional hearings without the personal approval of President Arroyo. The prohibition is based on the President’s controversial Executive Order 464.

The Supreme Court has already ruled that EO 464 is unconstitutional.

The Executive Department, however, filed a motion for reconsideration which the Senate now wanted resolved as soon as possible because it affects its legislative powers.

Senator Arroyo pointed out that while it sustained the Senate’s position on EO 464, the Supreme Court "prudently laid down guidelines on the conduct of congressional investigations."

Arroyo quoted the Supreme Court decision as saying that "parenthetically, one possible way for Congress to avoid such a result as occurred in Bengzon is to indicate in its invitations to the public officials concerned, or to any person for that matter, the possible needed statute which prompted the need for the inquiry…Given such statement in its invitations, along with the usual indication of the subject of the inquiry and the questions relative thereto and in furtherance thereof, there would be less for speculation on the part of the person invited on whether the inquiry is in aid of legislation."

Arroyo noted that past congressional investigations were free-wheeling.

The senator said "the Executive could have simply and politely stated their willingness to appear provided that the quoted portion of the Supreme Court decision on EO 464 was followed."

"But they did not indicate their readiness to cooperate and instead said that the officials invited would be busy in the evacuation operations of OFWs. But they did none of that. While the Senate was conducting the hearing, the officials invited were holding simultaneous press conference. That’s not the way to show cooperation," Arroyo said.

"The Senate responded with a subpoena. What happens if the Executive officials refuse to attend? Will the Senate cite them for contempt?" he asked.

"These matters should be threshed out before it reaches that point. The Senate can reword its invitation to conform with the parameters of the SC decision and the Executive should express a willingness to appear before the Senate panel. To do otherwise is childish and petty," Arroyo said. (Mario B. Casayuran)