Gonzales slammed for ‘taunting’ Senate

He’s sick and he’s out there partying?

A top Senate official raised this concern yesterday, saying National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales seems to be ridiculing the Senate after he has been spotted in a number of public functions despite his supposed serious medical condition.

"Secretary Gonzales is taunting the Senate on this. Kung gusto mo ma-release, tahimik ka na lang. Pero nagpalabas ka pa rin ng press releases na natakot ang Senado (Since he wanted to be released, he could’ve just kept it low. But he even issued a press release saying the Senate got scared [thus, freed him from its custody])," said the Senate official, who asked anonymity.

The Senate official issued the statement after Gonzales was spotted in Malacañang recently and over the weekend during the birthday bash of Rep. Prospero Nograles in Davao.

The Senate freed Gonzales, who is suffering from diabetes, last week for humanitarian reasons due to his health condition after more than a month under Senate custody and confinement at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City.

He was ordered detained by the Senate for contempt after refusing to answer the senators’ queries on the controversial Venable LLP contract.

Senate legal counsel David Jonathan Yap warned Gonzales "on his own lookout because the senators believed what doctors diagnosed on his medical condition."

"Even his doctors at the Heart Center said he needed a bypass or an operation. I think he has been properly warned about his condition," Yap said.

Yap also expressed the Senate’s disappointment over the claim of Gonzales’ Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP) that the upper chamber provisionally released Gonzales "to preempt whatever adverse decision the Supreme Court could have handed down" on the habeas corpus case filed by the party.

"(The) Senate is not yet over with Gonzales. The interim report (by the Blue Ribbon Committee) is not yet final. Please be reminded that the Senate is a continuing body," Yap said in an interview.

He further warned that the Senate can always call Gonzales back to the witness stand to answer pertinent questions on the Venable LLP contract, which technically allowed American representatives to contribute and influence moves to change the Constitution in the country. — Christina Mendez