MANILA, 22 September 2005 — Senators yesterday ordered the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s national security adviser detained inside the Senate building after he refused to answer questions about a contract he signed for the government with a Washington-based lobby firm.
A Senate committee summoned Norberto Gonzales to ask him whether he was authorized by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to sign the contract, and where the government would get the money to pay the US firm Venable LLP.
Gonzales said he got Arroyo’s approval to hire the firm to help the Philippine government secure grants from the US Congress for a plan to rewrite the constitution and pave the way for a shift to a Federal form of government, among other projects.
Under the contract, the firm is to be paid $75,000 a month by private donors starting in July, Gonzales told the committee.
Gonzales, however, refused to publicly identify the donorsand failed to clearly answer whether he got specific authority from Arroyo to sign the contract.
He claimed that Arroyo did not see a copy of the signed contract. Arroyo earlier announced that she has ordered the deal rescinded because of the controversy surrounding it.
“He’s trying to make a fool out of the senators and he’s trying to fool all the Filipino people,” Sen. Panfilo Lacson complained.
An irate Sen. Aquilino Pimentel then recommended that Gonzales be cited for contempt and detained, which the committee members approved.
Under Senate rules, lawmakers have the power to detain any person cited for contempt in a congressional inquiry.
“The length of detention is up to him,” said Senate President Franklin Drilon. “The moment he says now I am willing to answer the questions, then the detention ends.”
At one point, Drilon angrily told him: “You’re fooling us, you’re fooling the whole nation.”
Senate security officers were then ordered to escort Gonzales to a room where he would stay until he decides to cooperate in an inquiry into the contract he signed.
The Senate allowed him, however, to be taken to a hospital after he complained of exhaustion and a doctor who checked on his condition certified that Gonzales was suffering from hypertension.
Senate guards were told that Gonzales would not be allowed to go home, and would return to the Senate building once his condition improved.
Gonzales’ refusal to tell the truth irked the allies of President Arroyo. Sen. Joker Arroyo, head of the Senate panel, said Gonzales was allowed to stay silent only if he would incriminate himself in an illegal activity.
The incident came at a politically sensitive time in the Philippines, after Arroyo escaped impeachment on vote-rigging allegations and coup rumors swirled.
Asked for comment on Lacson’s demand for his resignation, Gonzales told reporters: “Yes, if really called for.”
Many of the senators contend that Gonzales could not legally sign a contract that dealt with a non-security matter, such as a planned constitutional amendment.
Others also criticized Gonzales, a former anti-US activist, for seeking American government help for such a politically sensitive plan. (With input from agencies)
