MANILA, Philippines -- Former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri did his President a great disservice, whether intended or not, when he claimed executive privilege in the Senate hearings. How come? Only consider: He did not hesitate to tell the Senate committee that he reported to the President the alleged bribe offer of Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos; neither did he hesitate to tell the Senate committee that she told him not to accept the bribe. In other words, on that part of his conversations with the President, which casts her (and him) in a good light, Neri did not hide behind executive privilege.

But when pressed for more information on the conversations, he scuttled for cover. So what other choice would even the most sympathetic listener have but to conclude that those other parts of the conversations he refused to divulge were going to put either him or his principal in a bad light? Of course, there is no question that using executive privilege would allow the already suspicious opposition to make hay -- but Neri’s selective use of it left little room for doubt. With that kind of friend, one no longer needs any enemies.

But the bigger disservice that Neri did was to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), which ended up looking inutile and incompetent after his explanations -- contrary to what the Philippine Constitution mandates it to be: the country’s independent economic development and planning agency, tasked with coordinating the government’s social and economic development plans, programs and policies.

Why inutile? Well, to hear him tell it, Neda and its interagency committees are all collegial bodies (true) and he, as Neda chief, had only one vote (true). And that the chair of the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC), which recommended the approval of the ZTE project to build a National Broadband Network (NBN), is the secretary of finance (true). All this leads the listener to believe that he and the Neda Secretariat, which he headed, are practically helpless.

What he didn’t say was that he was vice chair of the Neda Board (the President is chair), and was chair, or co-chair, of all its interagency committees. But his Pontius Pilate act was so convincing, I began to think that, perhaps, the Neda had indeed been emasculated. I even texted a former colleague to ask when the executive order creating the Neda had been amended to emasculate the Neda Secretariat and the director general. (I occupied the position in the first three years of the Cory government, and I knew the authority and responsibilities of the Neda Secretariat and its chief.) It was only toward the end of the hearing that he admitted he was co-chair of the ICC -- but the admission was almost an aside, and I wouldn’t have caught it if I hadn’t been so concerned.

And if we want to quibble about the respective powers of chair vs. co-chair, the Neda director general is chair of the Infrastructure Committee (InfraCom) of the Neda Board which “Advises the President on matters concerning infrastructure development, including … telecommunications.... Coordinates the activities of agencies … involved in infrastructure development.… Recommends to the President policies, programs and projects concerning infrastructure development consistent with national development objectives and priorities.” How much more power does he want?

Given all that, isn’t it obvious that Neri could have, and should have, stopped short the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Department of Education when they wanted to scale up their telecom programs by four times and five times, respectively? He had very strong grounds for doing so: (1) existing policy viewed this as a private activity; and (2) the original intent was merely -- to use an analogy -- to connect to the existing communications superhighways, rather than to build two additional superhighways of their own.

So why didn’t he do it? Because, he said, it was the line agencies’ decision. To hear him tell it, he had neither the responsibility nor the authority to point out to these line agencies that they were going against stated policy. One wonders what “policy coordination” means, which is part of the Neda’s brief.

As for making the Neda look incompetent -- (1) Neri told his staff to be careful of the project, because he had been offered a bribe on it (see how he washes his hands again, and now the onus is on the staff). (2) Yet, when his staff reported to him that they could not validate the ZTE cost estimates because a search on the Internet yielded no information -- he either allowed or ordered them to accept the costs as given (because, anyway, the economic rates of return are so high, even assuming the costs are overstated -- that is how he defended it). The interesting unasked (by the Senate) question is: why depend on the Internet only (or at all) when $329 million is at stake? The only answer has to be: because there was no time to get information from other sources. Which leads to: Why was there not enough time? Ah-hah. Which leads, unfortunately, to: And why didn’t the Neda staff protest that they were not given enough time to do a good job?

But to Neri goes the first prize for incompetence: He said the Neda doesn’t care about the financials, its job is to compute the economic internal rate of return (EIRR). I almost fell off my chair when I heard him say that. Any economist must know that computing the EIRR starts with the financials -- costs and benefits.

But then, Neri is not an economist.

More Inquirer columns

Previous columns:
Ring of truth – 09/22/07
A shot in the arm - 9/15/07
Treated like dirt - 9/08/07
Progress, the GSIS way - 09/01/07
Nothing wrong with GSIS eCard except that... – 08/25/07
The persuasive powers of GSIS – 08/18/07