NERI: A DISHONOR TO THE UNIVERSITY
Statement of Concerned UP Faculty, REPS, Staff and Students

March 27, 2008

The controversial and narrow decision of the Supreme Court to block the Senate from arresting and demanding Romulo Neri to disclose details on the President's involvement in the anomalous National Broadband Network (NBN) deal is a massive blow against the people's clamor for truth and justice.

This decision is nothing but a blanket license from the Supreme Court itself to cover up a crime against the people. It is nothing if not a license for the unscrupulous, corrupt and dishonest to blatantly obstruct the wheels of justice.

The strong objections of the six justices and the 120-page dissenting opinion of Chief Justice Reynato Puno himself against the nine who voted to uphold Neri's right to invoke executive privilege shows just how contentious and illegitimate this decision is. All the signs once again show the hand of Malacanang in ensuring that the majority of justices it had appointed would produce a decision favorable to it.

This has not been the first time that Malacanang has exerted its utmost to prevent the truth from seeing the light of day. It sends out its death squads to assassinate, make disappear and imprison those who speak the truth while it coddles barefaced liars and accomplices like Neri.

This decision, far from being a vindication of Romulo Neri, is but a further blot on his miserable and execrable record as one of the nation's most mistrusted public "disservants. " Neri lacks all moral high-ground and does not possess even the barest minimum of personal integrity necessary to lead an institution such as the University of the Philippines.

We support and reiterate the call of the UP Diliman University Council for Neri to resign as Chair of the Board of Regents (BOR) of the University of the Philippines .

NERI RESIGN NOW!
 

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■  GMANewsTV -UP employees stage picket, urge Neri to tell the 'truth'

■  GMANewsTV-Neri feeling the pressure from students - Cayetano

■  Inquirer: Protesters hound Neri at UP meeting

Union of Peoples' Lawyers in Mindanao
UPLM

Press Statement
March 26, 2008

Supreme Court decision on executive privilege

fodder for more protests

We are greatly disappointed with the Supreme Court decision upholding executive privilege in the testimony of ChEd chair Romulo Neri.

The sheer number of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's appointees in the High Court has no doubt influenced this troubling decision. From attempting to kidnap witness Jun Lozada to packing the High Court with appointees based on loyalty and not on integrity, this government has once more laid down a stumbling block in the people's clamor for truth.

A corroborating witness is crucial to determining the facts and the truth in the ZTE-NBN scandal. This Supreme Court's decision effectively concealing President Arroyo's instructions to Neri on the ZTE-NBN deal only means the legal truth has become more untenable. However, it also adds to the moral burden that bear down more and more heavily on Neri and Mrs. Arroyo.

The Ombudsman, meanwhile, has exposed itself as an instrumentality of government that cowers in fear of the President by refusing to summon her as respondent in the case of Guingona vs. Macapagal-Arroyo. What can the people expect when the Ombudsman herself sits there out of a political appointment from the First Family?
 

The enlightened segments of the legal profession that has taken a stand for truth and accountability, and for Mrs. Arroyo's removal from office, must now therefore strengthen its unity with the rest of the Filipino people in clamoring for the moral truth to prevail, as Malacanang tries to seal off more legal venues to keep it afloat in the corridors of power.

We salute Chief Justice Reynato Puno for his sharp and resolute dissenting opinion in this legal debate that has far-reaching implications to institutional checks-and-balances, transparency and good governance, and presidential immunity. This majority decision does not augur well for CJ Puno's efforts to call for more proactive judicial measures to curb corruption, beginning with his 'summit on corruption.'

While the Supreme Court decision and the put on proceedings in the Ombudsman favors President Arroyo, the political tempest that seeks her ouster will only continue to grow.

The decision will not acquit GMA from the ZTE anomaly hounding her, her family and her Cabinet. The more people are denied of the truth, the stronger and varied the people's anger will be.

Atty. Frederico Gapuz
Chairperson
Union of Peoples' Lawyers in Mindanao
Mobile #: 0906-347-5709

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■  UNO: ‘SC Neri ruling hinders search for truth’

Concerned UP professors demand Neri's resignation, Feb. 14, 2008

It is the final week of the UP semester. This math professor checks the papers of his students at the picket area while waiting for the group to mount a picket when Neri is sighted..

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