Thursday 18th August, 2011(Source: Sun Star Daily)
HOUSE Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. wants Negros Occidental Representative Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo to attend the Senate blue ribbon committee hearings on the anomalous sale of used helicopters to the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2009.
"He's a person who voluntarily gave a statement without being compelled to do so and I think it is in his best interest to support this statement by showing up there (Senate)," Belmonte told reporters in a press conference Thursday. The Speaker made the statement even after lawmakers from both the majority bloc and minority coalition advised the Senate to respect interparliamentary courtesy.
Po testified before the Senate blue ribbon committee that Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, Iggy's brother, bought the helicopters and had been paying Lionair for their upkeep.
The helicopters are now the center of a Senate investigation after it was found that the helicopters were later sold to the PNP as brand new.
Belmonte said if he were Representative Arroyo, "I'd go there and convince the Senate that I am telling the truth, and not just (trying) to take the heat for my brother."
Earlier, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said that if the Senate does not observe interparliamentary courtesy between chambers of Congress, it will open the door for the House of Representatives to also invite senators to its committee hearings.
"It might be an informal thing but there are huge repercussions when you open the door to that. I don't think the senators will feel the same way (knowing we can invite them)," Gonzales then told reporters.
Both Belmonte and Gonzales are members of the ruling Liberal Party, of which President Benigno Aquino III is chairman.
Members of the House minority, as well as allies of former President and current Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, have called the probe a ploy to embarrass the Arroyos and a waste of time.
Representative Iggy Arroyo is currently in London seeking treatment for an unspecified liver condition.
'Getting Arroyo testimony a long shot'
With interparliamentary courtesy keeping the Senate from compelling Representative Arroyo to testify, the Senate blue ribbon committee might as well forward its evidence to the Justice department for prosecution.
Aquilino Pimentel Jr., a former Senate President, told reporters Thursday that the Senate cannot summon Representative Iggy Arroyo over his claim that he leased -- and did not own -- helicopters later sold to the police as brand new.
He said doing so would be disrespectful of the co-equal House of Representatives.
The Senate blue ribbon committee has issued him an invitation to explain how the helicopters, which some senators believe belong to former first gentleman Mike Arroyo, ended up being sold to the PNP as brand-new units.
But Pimentel said the Justice department or the Office of the Ombudsman might make better progress on the case.
"Eventually, it will be the DOJ or the Ombudsman who can start prosecution," he explained.
Pimentel, who was once chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee, said he had invited members of the House to hearings before but that they were not forced to attend hearings.
He said the Senate could theoretically ask the House leadership to help convince Representative Arroyo to testify. House Speaker Belmonte has already done that.
The Senate could also petition a court to order Arroyo to appear before the committee.
"But that is a long shot, the court will probably wash its hands of it and say it is a political problem," he said.
He said Mike Arroyo, the former President's husband, is a private citizen and is not covered by interparliamentary courtesy. He can be summoned by the Senate unless he is too ill to testify, as was the case in a recent hearing.
"That would actually be a more effective way to gather evidence," Pimentel said.
Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, in a separate interview, said although Representative Iggy Arroyo cannot be summoned by the Senate, he should still come over and air his side.
He said that Arroyo's colleagues at the House could urge the Negros Occidental lawmaker to appear before the blue ribbon committee.
Cayetano, a critic known of ex-President Arroyo even while he member of the House of Representative, said he would treat Iggy Arroyo as if he were a senator, and not as a witness.
"I will even give him access to the microphone at any time," he said. Cayetano, a former blue ribbon committee chairman, is currently an ex-officio member of the committee.
He also challenged the Arroyos to sign a waiver and let the committee look at their financial records. He said checking the Arroyos' books would quickly extinguish allegations of corruption if the committee finds no proof of it.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, in an interview Wednesday, said there is basis for the blue ribbon committee's invitation.
He said that while Iggy Arroyo has said he was responsible for the lease agreement, "the evidence in the hands of the Senate is quite different."
He said, though, that if Representative Arroyo invokes interparliamentary courtesy, he "will leave it to the committee to dispose (of) that." He said he could not speak for the members of the Blue Ribbon committee.
Asked whether he will try to compel the congressman to testify, Enrile said: "I will cross the bridge when I come to it."