Salus presidente est suprema lex.

From declaring herself as "the State" in Presidential Proclamation 1017, here comes Gloria Macapagal Arroyo with a smile that could connect one ear to the other. The Supreme Court, through Neri vs. Senate Committee, ruled on the extent of the Executive Privilege the Philippine President and her cabinet secretaries could invoke. The resolution penned by Justice Teresita De Castro states that:

The context in which executive privilege is being invoked is that the information sought to be disclosed might impair our diplomatic as well as economic relations with the People’s Republic of China. Given the confidential nature in which these information were conveyed to the President, he cannot provide the Committee any further details of these conversations, without disclosing the very thing the privilege is designed to protect.

And what are these questions? These are as follows:

a) Whether the President followed up the (NBN) project?

b) Were you dictated to prioritize the ZTE?

c) Whether the President said to go ahead and approve the project after being told about the alleged bribe?

The Senate, according to the high tribunal, failed to show a compelling need for the answers to said questions. Thus, the court continued, the Senate cannot compel Neri to divulge information which are covered by the executive privilege.

Arroyo's smile further broadened when the Ombudsman also junked the motion to subpoena the president over the scandalous national broadband deal. This means she remains a privileged person far and above the law. This also means that the interests of the people -- their right to information, their right to a transparent, responsive and accountable government, and their right to have their welfare placed above anything else, is set aside.

Kung sabagay, bakit pa kailangang magtaka ang mga Pilipino? It is already made clear by the Freedom House that the Philippines is not a democratic country. Sa isang demokrasyang bansa kasi,the welfare of the people is the supreme law. In the case of the Philippines, it is the welfare of the President -- something similar to case of monarchs who rule under the benefit of the Divine Law, and the dictators.

Otherwise, puwede rin imbestigahan si Gloria Arroyo or i-subpoena tulad ni Bill Clinton when he had a sex scandal at tulad ni Richard Nixon during the Watergate Scandal. O di ba?