The committee had summoned Gonzales to shed light on the contract he had signed with an American lobby firm in behalf of the country.

The members of the panel took turns grilling Gonzales, eager to find out who authorized him to sign, who was shouldering the P75,000 monthly retainer of the firm Venable LLP.

Gonzales’ replies were vague and at times evasive, earning the rebuke of the senators.

He appeared composed throughout the hearing, but at one point he asked for a break because he felt his blood pressure rising.

The Senate’s physician examined him and found his blood pressure had shot up to 100/60.

In the end the blue ribbon chair, Sen. Joker Arroyo, ruled Gonzales in contempt and ordered him detained in the Senate premises “until he answers forthrightly all questions directed to him.”

Arroyo’s motion was unanimously carried.

Right after the hearing, Gonzales, accompanied by the Senate physician and a security detail, was driven in an ambulance to the Philippine Heart Center for a checkup.

Arroyo said Gonzales would be brought back to the Senate once he is given a clean bill of health.

Asked how long Gonzales would be detained, Arroyo said it might be one week or longer. “But if he tells us the details, then we can send him out in a matter of two hours.”

Gonzales’ evasiveness infuriated the Senate minority leader, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., and Senate President Franklin Drilon.

Pimentel said it was obvious Gonzales is trying to protect President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. “His goal is to conceal her wrongdoings. It is very clear that he knows what was written in the contract. He is fooling us,” he said.

Gonzales said he assumed he had the authority to sign the contract because he had talked with the President, who gave him the go-ahead to look for a lobby group.

He said the responsibilities of a national security adviser have been modified to include ensuring political stability or peace and harmony between the government and the people.

“I thought that Charter-change and its discussion could help,” Gonzales said.

Arroyo said he couldn’t find the relation between political stability and Charter-change.

“Secretary Gonzales, you’re a smart fellow, we were together in the martial-law movement. I cannot imagine that you have a flaw in your character, you have a nationalist bent. Now you come in saying you don’t mind foreign intervention,” Arroyo said.

Gonzales asked the Senate time for time to find out the private donors funding the contract.

Last week, he said the donors preferred to remain anonymous.

“He’s going around in circles. The Senate is being taken for a ride. I’d like to say that he has acted like a pimp, soliciting funds to mangle the Constitution,” Pimentel said.

Gonzales said the House minority leader, Rep. Francis Escudero, and opposition congressman Rolex Suplico met with American officials to plot the overthrow of the Arroyo Administration.

Escudero and Suplico denied the allegation and challenged Gonzales to produce evidence. “I think Gonzales is trying to get back at us for hitting his Venable contract,” said Escudero. “If he has any evidence, he should show it. If none, he should stop making wild accusations unless of course this is part of a grand plot to destroy the opposition.”

Suplico said Gonzales “is hallucinating. He is lying. I have nothing but pity for a man in his present position.”

Gonzales came under fire after the Venable contract was first disclosed by The Manila Times two weeks ago.

Drilon said that although Gonzales is a member of a coequal branch of government, Congress can still cite him for contempt as an uncooperative resource person.

Gonzales is the very first Cabinet member and the third resource person to be cited for contempt by the Senate.

The first resource person cited for contempt by the Senate was Jean Arnault.

The Senate ordered the detention of the Frenchman when he refused to identify persons involved in the Tambobong-Buenavista land scandal that had beset the administration of President Elpidio Quirino.

The second was a lawyer from General Santos City who was cited by the blue ribbon committee, then headed by Pimentel, for ignoring a subpoena to testify in the investigation of a land deal by the Armed Forces of the Philippines Savings and Loan Association.

The lawyer said the land deal was already the subject of a court case and therefore sub judice and could not be discussed anywhere else.