Double talk, ‘triple speak’

Malacañang Palace pulled another fast one on Congress. President Arroyo issued last Wednesday Executive Order (EO) No. 464 "Ensuring Observance of the Principle of Separation of Powers, Adherence to the Rule on Executive Privilege and Respect for the Rights of Public Officials Appearing in Legislative Inquiries in Aid of Legislation Under the Constitution, and for Other Purposes."

EO 464 prohibits Cabinet officials and other heads of the Executive Department, including the police and military establishments, from testifying before Congress "without prior approval" of the President.

In her directive, the President cited the "need to prevent such inquiries in aid of legislation from being used for partisan purposes, disrupting diplomatic relations with foreign governments and weakening the stability of the State, thereby impeding the efforts of the government to generate and attract foreign investments."

President Arroyo issued EO 464 while some of her most bitter critics and opponents in the Senate were still frothing in the mouth after they tried but failed to squeeze the truth from National Security Adviser (NSA) Norberto Gonzales about the questioned Venable LLP lobby contract during their public hearing last Sept.21.

Speaking of Gonzales, I cannot blame the senators for feeling pissed at the NSA. The senators accused Gonzales of making a fool of them for his vehement refusal to reveal the purported "private donors" of the funds paid for the services of Venable, a duly registered lobby firm in the US, to push for specific interests of the Philippine government before the US Congress.

But I only had admiration for Gonzales when he successfully gave the Senators the run-around during the hearing and parried their attacks which were obviously aimed at President Arroyo.

I vividly recall with fondness how I teased the late Gen. Rafael Ileto when he was NSA during the administration of former President Corazon Aquino.

When I saw Ileto in one of the occasions at the Palace, I ribbed him about his being accused by certain senators of giving them "double talk" during a Senate hearing. The former NSA retorted: "Then, I must be doing my job right. But I beg to disagree with them. It’s not double talk. It’s triple speak!"

I had to look for a dictionary to know the difference between the two terms. While I found the definition for "double talk," there was no entry for "triple speak."

The International Webster defines "double talk" as a language that appears to be earnest and meaningful but in fact is a mixture of sense and non-sense; always skirting the main subject but never touching it.

In the case of "triple speak," I can only surmise that what Ileto meant was speaking about things that are three-times magnified.

By Ileto’s standard, many of our past NSAs, namely ex-Generals Jose Almonte, Alexander Aguirre, and most recently, Roilo Golez who is back to his congressional district in Parañaque, were all really experts in triple speak.

These are the distinguished predecessors of Gonzales who have no military background except perhaps his Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) drilling in college.

So I think our honorable senators should not take it against Gonzales for his gobbledygook since he was just doing his job as NSA that even as they grilled him they could get nothing from him.

It was a torture test that Gonzales passed with flying colors as far as President Arroyo was concerned. That is why Cabinet members are called the "alter egos" of the President and serve at the trust and confidence of the Chief Executive.

As of this writing, Gonzales is still confined at the Philippine Heart Center in East Avenue, Quezon City where he was immediately taken after his near-stroke episode at his Senate hearing appearance.

The browbeating that Gonzales suffered in the hands of the Senate undoubtedly was the last straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.

The President’s issuance of EO 464 came a few days after she vowed to her cabalens in Pampanga where she flew the next day after that Senate hearing of Gonzales, that the Executive would no longer be "chasing the bully around the schoolyard."

It was on that same day the Palace announced the setting aside of the then existing "maximum tolerance" policy and in its stead, law enforcement authorities now follow what they call "calibrated preemptive response" in dealing with wildcat or illegal rallies staged in public places all over the country.

House majority leader Prospero Nograles came up with a funny dissection of the term "calibrated preemptive response." To preempt is to act before an event. Response is after. So what do we calibrate? Both, before and after, Nograles wise-cracked.

Levity aside, Nograles distinctly recalled even during the Aquino administration, the former President also invoked her "executive privilege" on Sept.29,1987 when she issued Memorandum 112 which set the guidelines for appearance of executive heads and officers in Congressional hearings.

So it has a precedent which, by tradition and in the spirit of cooperation and inter-departmental courtesy, has not been exercised.

This practice is thus re-imposed under EO 464 which was immediately carried out last Wednesday when the Senate conducted their own inquiry on the "Hello Garci" tape scandal.

Naturally, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen.Generoso Senga and other top military officials were no show at this Senate public hearing in compliance with the "legal orders" of their Commander-in-Chief.

I heard opposition Sen.Juan Ponce-Enrile in a radio interview yesterday say that this really has been the practice in the military establishment and that no less than former President Fidel V.Ramos will attest that this was the case when he was still a general during the Marcos administration.

In fact, Enrile recalled, it was him as the Defense Secretary, who appeared in behalf of the military officers being promoted to Colonels and Generals in any confirmation hearing at the Commission on Appointments (CA).

This way, Enrile pointed out, the military was really insulated from partisan politics.

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