Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said they decided to not attend the next hearing of the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte as there were likely topics that have been covered in the previous hearing.
Bersamin said it was best to write a letter to Senator Imee Marcos, who leads the Senate panel hearing on Duterte's arrest, to formally inform her that Cabinet officials "will not be forced to respond to questions concerning these matters."
"When we learned about the topics, kasi yung (because the) invitation ni (of) Senator Imee was quite specific about the topics. So we had a look at this invitation and we determined that there were many probable or likely topics na (that) covered by those matters that could come under yung (the) executive privilege," Bersamin said in an interview on Thursday, April 3.
"So it was best to get ahead with a letter to the senator and the Senate President so that they would be formally informed that in that hearing, our Cabinet secretaries and other executive officers will be not forced to respond to questions concerning these matters. That’s the essence of the letter," Bersamin stressed.
The senator received the letter from Bersamin declining the Cabinet's attendance in the April 3 hearing on March 31.
Bersamin's statement came after Malacañang defended the Marcos administration's decision to invoke Executive privilege.
In a Palace briefing on April 2, Palace Press Officer and Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said that Cabinet officials have already provided sufficient facts on the previous hearing of the arrest of the former president, thus the administration opted to decline the invitation to attend the next hearing.