(Edited: i elaborated on the game; litigation is a game) on last night’s breaking news: Senate rejects proposed compromise

Photo rightclicked from http://www.senate.gov.ph              

         The  Senate rejected the proposed compromise by the Supreme Court 20 minutes ago and, as this is being written, the communication bearing that decision is now being brought to the Supreme Court.           

      That means that there will be no Romy Neri at the Senate  committee hearings until the TRO  [(or preliminary injunction (?)] is lifted. When would the ruling be handed down? It depends on the calendar of the Supreme Court, maybe one week maybe three months.          

       Here’s what the Senate missed:           

          They could have drafted the Joint Manifestation itself; the Joint Manifestation that would cause the withdrawal of Neri’s  Prayer for a TRO and Preliminary Injunction, which would cause the TRO to be lifted and the Preliminary Injunction not anymore deliberated on and granted,   and would make him attend, and there’s never gonna be a TRO or preliminary injunction while the Senate is asking him questions, for as long as they want to or as long as they have questions or until his lawyers could go back to the Supreme Court and ask for a TRO again and reinstate their prayer for Preliminary Injunction. The Senate could have worded it in such manner that it refers to the pendency of legal issues and does not in any way constitute a precedent. Therefore, it does not encroach on any of their powers  because it makes reference to issues that are litis pendentia .            

          They missed that one. (It’s done thru a Joint Manifestation that they themselves could write. Duh.)             

        They also missed this: The President in her interview over DZRH a couple of weeks ago  had “declassified” the “sumbong” conversations  made to her on the ZTE contract negotiations, by talking about them over the airwaves, heard by millions of people and with excerpts replayed over television networks and published in newspapers. Because  the President talked about these “sumbong” conversations  publicly, they are not anymore covered by executive privilege.  Neri can invoke as many deities as he wants, till kingdom come, on the “sumbong” questions; it doesn’t mean the Senate is obliged to agree with him, since the President herself had “declassified”  these matters, and he is (or would have been) inside the Senate’s hearing, where the Senate is supreme. Neri’s lawyers could decide to go back to the Supreme Court to reinstate their prayer for a TRO and a preliminary injunction but in the meantime, the ball is being played in the Senate’s court and the senators can ask as many questions as they can on the declassified “sumbong” conversations, the dinners, the trips to China, the Powerpoint presentation on Gloria being at the center of  what Neri called the “ecosystem of corruption” that’s why Neri had said “she is evil”, his instruction to Jun Lozada to “Moderate their greed” during the contract negotiations which Neri himself had admitted; his phonecalls to Jun Lozada and other officials when Jun Lozada was forcibly taken, etc., etc., pending litigation of the Petition for Prohibitory Injunction with Prayer for permanent injunction (the TRO and prayer for prelim injunction would have been withdrawn pending litigation, remember? The ball would be in the Senate’s court for three weeks, or more, pending litigation and they could ask as many questions for weeks pending litigation. )              

        The Senate missed that one.            

         I told you, you were being given an opening  (while the Chief Justice tries to work a consensus in his Court)           

       Okay. Wait na lang until the TRO is lifted or until Neri volunteers.