Sereno v. Committee on Trade and Related Matters G.R. No.

175220,
Feb. 1, 2016
Issue: Can executive privilege be invoked over closed-door meetings
of CTRM whose two members are not cabinet members?
Ruling: No, in the court's ruling of Senate of the Philippines v. Ermita, which
states that executive privilege is properly invoked in relation to specific
categories of the information, not categories of persons hereby means that
the fact that some members of the committee were not part of the
President's Cabinet is irrelevant in invoking executive privilege. Closed-door
meetings of the Cabinet by virtue of the committee's composition and nature
of its mandate dealing with matters of foreign affairs, trade and policymaking is within the scope of exemption from disclosure because it is directly
related to the exercise of sovereign prerogative of the President as the Head
of the State in the conduct of foreign affairs and the regulation of trade, as
provided in Sec. 3 (a) of Rule 4 of the R.A. No. 6713. This concludes that the
nature of the information sought to be assessed is the determining factor for
invoking executive privilege.