Joker defends Senate performance

Sen. Joker Arroyo defended yesterday the Senate’s numerous investigations in the wake of criticisms that very few laws have been passed because the Senate and House of Representatives were preoccupied with inquiries.

"It is neither fair nor correct that the present Senate is a do-nothing Senate, having enacted only six bills of national importance, because it devotes its time to endless investigations," Arroyo said.

Several of the investigations conducted by the Senate, he stressed, have had a tremendous impact on government officials and the public.

He cited as examples the investigations conducted by the three committees he chairs — Blue Ribbon, justice and human rights and public services — from July 2004 to July 2006.

He noted that the controversial contract with Venable, a US lobbying firm, was junked after the Senate conducted its investigation.

The inquiry revealed, among other things, that National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales had committed an illegal act in taking it upon himself to lobby the United States Congress to obtain funds for Charter change.

On the deal between the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Mega Pacific Consortium for the purchase of automated counting machines, Arroyo said the result of the Blue Ribbon Committee’s investigation into the contract concurred with the ruling of the Supreme Court that the Comelec officials involved in the scam should resign.

On the investigation regarding the fraudulent use of tax credit certificates by private firms that resulted in billions in lost tax revenues for the government, Arroyo said the Senate investigation led to the resignation of a finance undersecretary and "gave the added push to the prosecution of erring officials and corporate taxpayers in over 1,000 cases."

Arroyo noted that a draft committee report on the scam had already been prepared and was merely awaiting action from the Office of the Ombudsman.

An investigation was also conducted on the P12-billion separation benefits prematurely collected by executives, officials and employees of the National Power Corp. (NAPOCOR) and their subsequent rehiring.

The investigation is still pending because Napocor has not completed the documentation required.

Two recent inquiries conducted by the Senate on the acts committed by authorities against the media and the anti-administration protesters pursuant to Proclamation 1017 also resulted in reports concurring with the ruling of the Supreme Court, which cast legal questions on the presidential proclamation.

On the roundtable inquiries on broadband technology, Voiceover Internet Protocol and 3G, Arroyo stressed that the objective was to bring down the rates imposed by the industry franchise holders on consumers "without Congress having to take a hard look into a franchise inquiry."

"The unstoppable advance in technology has created added services which were not contemplated when Congress granted the big players in the industry their original franchises and monopoly and extended to them tax holidays and BOI tax exemptions," Arroyo said.