DoJ to review Duterte directive on Senate probe
JUSTICE SECRETARY Menardo I. Guevarra agreed to review the presidential directive barring executive officials from participating in the Senate’s probe on alleged misused pandemic funds.
“I do hope that with the aid of the good secretary of Justice, this memorandum can be reviewed in order that the constitutional crisis can be averted,” said Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon during Wednesday’s Finance Committee budget hearing.
Mr. Guevarra said he would discuss it with the executive secretary and asked that the Senate also make adjustments in consideration of the executive department officials’ work schedule.
“I believe that this is a two-way thing,” Mr. Guevarra told the hearing. “There should be adjustments for both sides.”
The Justice chief also said that he was not involved in the drafting of the memo, but he was called for his opinion.
He said the memo was made “not as a defiance of the congressional prerogative to conduct legislative inquiries, but as a protest on the manner the Senate blue ribbon committee has conducted its hearings, which have taken a lot of valuable time from executive officials who are urgently addressing a public health emergency.”
The next blue ribbon committee hearing is scheduled on Oct. 12. — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan
