A Supreme Court magistrate on Tuesday turned down suggestions that he should inhibit himself in the high court's deliberations on the secret conversations between President Arroyo and former Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri, despite confirmation that he and Neri played golf once.

In an interview with ABS-CBN News, Supreme Court Associate Justice Presbiterio Velasco denied that he and Neri are golfing buddies. He also saw no reason why he should inhibit himself from participating in the court's deliberations on Neri's case.  

Neri has asked the Supreme Court to decide whether the conversations he had with President Arroyo on the National Broadbank Network (NBN) project with ZTE Corp. of China are covered by "executive privilege" and are thus classified information.

Velasco said he played one round of golf with Neri at the Wack-Wack Country Golf Club in Mandaluyong last year.

"It is unfortunate that Mr. [Rodolfo Jun] Lozada uses this incident as basis for my inhibition in the NBN-ZTE case. It is unfair to virtually question my objectivity and capacity to render a just and detached judgement in the NBN case on account of a single round of golf. Rest assured that I will vote in the NBN case fairly as I have done in previous cases," Velasco said.

Lozada, the star witness in the Senate investigation on the $329 million ZTE-NBN deal, earlier confirmed with abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak that he and Neri had played golf with Velasco at the Wack-Wack Country Golf Club in Mandaluyong last year, but he could not recall whether the NBN-ZTE deal was discussed in the sidelines.

Lozada said that the incident slipped his mind because it was not related to his earlier testimonies in the Senate. He said Neri and Velasco have known each other for a time, a fact that the magistrate may have failed to disclose to his colleagues in the SC.

Neri said the game took place prior to the signing of the NBN project with ZTE Corp. of China, and way before the Senate investigation into the allegedly overpriced contract.

In the judiciary, justices are not supposed to socialize with litigants, lawyers and other interested parties in a case. They are also supposed to inhibit themselves from cases involving close friends.

SC supports Velasco

Supreme Court Spokesman Jose Midas Marquez, meanwhile, said the court, en banc, supported Velasco's decision.

"Justice Velasco says that Secretary Neri is just an acquaintance, nothing more. No need for him to inhibit," Marquez said.

The SC is now deliberating on the petition filed by Neri to stop the Senate from arresting him for snubbing the Senate hearings on the NBN-ZTE deal.

Neri has refused to attend the Senate hearings on the ground that the three questions that senators had wanted to ask him are protected by executive privilege.

The SC last week held oral arguments on Neri’s petition and had ordered both parties to submit additional memoranda for their respective positions.

The SC is expected to come out with its decision after the Holy Week.

During Tuesday's deliberations, the court, en banc, refused a petition from Neri's camp to extend the deadline on the submission of memoranda to the court.

"If we grant petition seeking for one-week extension, it will delay resolution of the case. Court is aware of the urgency of the matter," the SC said.