Genalyn D. Kabiling
After a fruitful assembly that resulted in the revocation of Executive Order 464, Malacañang is arranging another meeting with Catholic bishops, this time to tackle the government’s anti-corruption initiatives.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol said Cabinet members and Catholic prelates have agreed to meet again soon and discuss ways to improve the fight against official corruption.
"We agreed to hold another dialogue about fighting corruption in government," Apostol said in a phone interview, a day after President Arroyo bowed to the demands of the Catholic bishops to scrap the controversial EO 464 in a closed door meeting in a hotel in Pasig City.
He said the date and place of the second dialogue between the president’s men and religious leaders are still in the works.
Apostol admitted that the Catholic prelates are particularly concerned about how to speed up the prosecution of government executives involved in graft practices. He gave his assurance that the government remains sincere in putting behind bars officials found guilty of corruption regardless of their stature.
Deputy Presidential Spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo said President Arroyo has already asked the Catholic bishops to join the government’s procurement transparency group.
Fajardo said the President was also impressed by the bishops’ program for monitoring the use of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) by local government units during last Wednesday’s meeting. Fajardo said the president expressed hopes that the bishops’ IRA watch could be applied in all levels of government.
Last Wednesday, Mrs. Arroyo cancelled EO 464, which bans government executives from appearing in congressional hearings without her consent, following a meeting with the Catholic bishops and Cabinet members.
The president, however, has retained her right to invoke executive privilege to withhold confidential information on state affairs.
While it has not called on President Arroyo to resign, the CBCP, in a pastoral letter issued last week, asked her government to take the lead in the fight against corruption in government. It also called for the revocation of the order that restricts government officials from appearing in legislative inquiries without the approval of the president.
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