Trillanes backs allegation vs. Ermita as ‘baselines’ committee chair
Answers Defensor-Santiago’s request for legal basis as a ‘courtesy’
Office of Senator Antonio F. “Sonny” F. Trillanes IV
PRESS RELEASE
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV answered recently Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s request for the legal basis of his allegation of illegality and impropriety against Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.
In a letter to Defensor-Santiago dated September 17, 2008, Trillanes maintained that Ermita’s chairmanship of a Senate committee meeting was ‘unconstitutional, illegal and improper’ based on the doctrine of separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.
“It is a legal principle studied in any introductory course in government and political law.” said Trillanes. He extensively cited the discussion on the principle in the book, ‘Constitutional Law Text and Cases, Volume I, Political Structure’ authored by Defensor-Santiago herself in support of his position.
Trillanes filed a resolution last September 4, 2008 seeking a legislative inquiry on Ermita’s act of acting as chair and presiding officer of the Technical Working Group (TWG) meeting on bills on the Philippines’ archipelagic baselines held in Malacañang. The group was comprised of the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations, Finance, and National Defense and Security last August 14, 2008.
During the meeting on the five separate ‘baselines’ bills authored by Senators Trillanes Edgardo Angara, Rodolfo Biazon, Juan Ponce Enrile, and Aquilino Pimentel, Ermita, who was designated as chair of the Technical Working Group (TWG) of the Committee on Foreign Relations by Defensor-Santiago, directed the TWG to adopt and draft the preferred option of the executive branch.
“Allowing one of the highest functionaries of the executive branch to preside over the TWG of the Committee on Foreign Relations not only constitutes an undue intervention by the executive into the exclusive powers and duties of the legislature, but likewise unduly imperils the much cherished independence of the Senate as an institution,” said Trillanes.
Trillanes also questioned the propriety of having Defensor-Santiago’s office, which designated Ermita as chair of the TWG, as the venue or forum for the resolution of the issue. “I requested in my resolution for the Senate to convene itself into a committee of the whole to look into the matter, as it is more appropriate to proceed in accordance with the Rules of the Senate,” he said.
According to Trillanes, he is not obliged to comply with Defensor-Santiago’s request to explain his position and submit to her Committee’s jurisdiction, but his response was “an expression of courtesy” to a fellow Senator.
END