JPE denies ‘pork’ raps, blasts Miriam
Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday stood up to allegations linking him to the pork barrel scam and took to task his tormentor, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
Enrile, who has long kept his silence on statements made by Santiago in the past, delivered a privilege speech where he answered point by point all the allegations raised against him.
In several speaking engagements, media interviews and even during the recent Blue Ribbon committee hearing, Santiago has accused Enrile of being the brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam and the siege of Zamboanga City by the Moro National Liberation Front (MILF).
Santiago even said Enrile was capable of murder and warned the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam, businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles that she could be assassinated at any time if she reveals what she knows about Enrile’s alleged involvement in the scam.
In his 30-minute privilege speech yesterday, Enrile mentioned the name of Santiago only once as he deliberately opted not to identify her directly.
But Enrile left no doubt in anybody’s mind that it was Santiago he was referring to in his speech.
He cited the blue ribbon committee hearing on the pork barrel scam last Nov. 7 where Santiago raised several questions to Napoles.
Enrile said that instead of uncovering the truth about the scam during that hearing, it turned into “a time and an occasion to attack, malign and assassinate the character of persons, especially me.”
“I have been advised by wellmeaning friends to ignore what was said against me in that blue ribbon hearing. After all, according to them, the abusive words were from a cuckoo, an inane and bitterly hostile mind,” Enrile said.
“I pondered over their unsolicited counsel and appreciated their concern for me. However, I decided to break my silence, lest those who heard the vicious and baseless accusations against me of that vile and malicious mind would believe them to be the truth and nothing but the truth,” he added.
Enrile said he had to defend his honor and to answer what he called “barefaced lies” raised against him.
“Although deep in my heart I believe that history, in a calmer and kinder social climate, will absolve me,” he said.
Enrile recalled three specific allegations raised against him by Santiago “without any iota of concrete proof,” namely of being murderous, of going to the restroom of the Senate with a bodyguard armed with a long firearm, and of being the mastermind of the pork barrel scam.
“I know that I should not dignify with answers these obvious lies flowing as they did from the hallucinated imaginings of a spiteful and bitterly hostile mind. But, I must. I must debunk these unbridled lies from the records of this Senate for the sake of honest truth,” he said.
Enrile said he never murdered anyone in all of his close to 90 years and for anyone to say with impunity that he killed anyone or is planning someone’s murder is the “grandmama of all falsehood fabricators.”
On the claim that he has heavily armed bodyguards accompanying him to the restrooms of the Senate, Enrile said everyone in the Senate, including the “fabricator of falsehoods” knew that this was yet another barefaced lie.
Enrile said he never allowed his security detail to carry any long firearms inside the Senate.
“I never realized until that blue ribbon hearing that we have a peeping tom in this Senate. I never knew that someone was keeping an eye on me, even when I go to the most private of places here in this building. It was, after all, supposed to be a private area,” he said.
“Perhaps my obsessive hater is the only one, in all these years, ever so blessed to see someone carrying a long one in the Senate restroom,” he remarked.
Offering some kind of explanation to Santiago’s claim on the restroom issue, Enrile admitted his men do accompany him when he enters the restroom, but only because they have to assist him due to his impaired vision.
He said his “obsessive hater” probably mistook the tiny gadget that he always brings along with him to scratch his back when it itches and to swat away flies as the long firearm since it could be extended.
“I know that I had not done any kind of oppressive act, by word or by deed, against anyone to earn that degree of enmity that would provoke a desire to harm me or to take my life,” Enrile said.
“This is another thing that demonstrates the obvious falsity of the claim that even in the Senate I need a bodyguard with a long firearm. Only a distorted, degraded, and deranged mind could imagine and invent such a blatant lie,” he added.
Enrile also denied allegations that he was behind the rebel siege of Zamboanga City.
He said he found out about the incident late since he was in his home province of Cagayan when it happened.
Regarding allegations that he was the brains behind the entire P10billion pork barrel scam, Enrile said this was an outright lie.
“Just another of those baseless fabrications against me from a depraved mind,” he said.
Just as he said in his previous statements, Enrile said he would answer all the allegations against him on the pork barrel scam at the proper forum.
“Perhaps, my obsessive hater should appear as a special prosecutor against me to demonstrate to her admirers her knowledge of the facts of the alleged PDAF scandal and her legal skill as a trial lawyer. I am sure she will experience something she never experienced before,” he said.
“Whenever an occasion arises, my bitter and obsessive hater habitually flaunts her being a former judge. With a flare of self-praise, she would normally say, as a former judge etc. etc. Well, I am sorry to say that this former judge does not seem to understand the basic meaning of due process. Every law student knows that due process simply means you hear first the evidence before you condemn,” he added.
Tit for tat
Just like Santiago who tended to attack Enrile on a personal level during her public speaking engagements, Enrile dished out his own personal attacks.
Enrile said Santiago “nearly flunked” her bar examination with a score of 76 percent, which he said, could only mean that she obtained low grades in all her bar subjects.
He said this included a grade of 56 percent in ethics, “the easiest bar examination subject.”
Enrile offered a theory on why Santiago has such a “vile anger and hostility” against him.
He recalled Santiago was appointed as secretary of agrarian reform by the late President Corazon Aquino.
He said he opposed the appointment of Santiago and revealed several sensitive information about her that eventually led to her rejection by the Commission on Appointments (CA).
During that CA hearing, Enrile made Santiago admit that she was treated by a psychiatrist at the Makati Medical Center.
Apart from having her reveal her grade in the bar examination, Enrile also raised the issue of Santiago’s use of a sports car that was previously in the custody of the Bureau of Customs.
Enrile said the vehicle was the property of former Philippine National Bank vice president Toots Trinidad who shipped it to Manila from the United States.
According to Enrile, Trinidad said at the time that Santiago, who was then a trial court judge of Quezon City, was using the vehicle.
“I was told that she claimed that her husband, Narciso Yap Santiago of the Province of Tarlac, who was at that time employed in the Bureau of Customs, gave her that sports car as a birthday gift. Later on, I found out that the car was registered in her name in the Bureau of Land Transportation in the Province of Tarlac,” Enrile said.
Enrile said that another possible reason for her deep- seated anger towards him came later on when he was already Senate President.
After being elected for a second time as Senate President in 2010, Enrile said that Santiago wanted to retain her chairmanship of two former committees, both of which have oversight committees with separate and large budgets.
However, Enrile said he did not give in to her request because the two committees had already been assigned.
“Obviously, she wanted a large pile of money at her disposal. But I could not satisfy her desire because the two committees had already been assigned to two other equally capable senators,” Enrile said.
Enrile disclosed Santiago sought for the creation of a new oversight committee to support her large staff, which he accommodated “without much ado.”
“Evidently, all those things that I did for her were not enough to assuage her deep-seated and bitter hostility against me for what happened in the past, especially in her confirmation hearing as secretary of agrarian reform,” Enrile said.
Asked by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada if he knew why Santiago harbored such hatred towards him, Enrile said it was probably because she was envious of him for having a higher grade in the bar exams.
Enrile said he scored almost 91 percent in the bar examinations but was only ranked 11th overall.
He compared Santiago to her UP batchmate and another product of Iloilo, Senate President Franklin Drilon, who was ranked third in the bar.
At the end of his speech, Enrile challenged Santiago to answer an allegation raised against her by former senator Panfilo Lacson before his term ended.
Lacson previously called Santiago a “crusading crook” in response to her attacks against him and Enrile regarding the use of the savings of the Senate.
“I have yet to hear from her a bristling rebuttal, a relevant answer, or a lucid explanation ... as she is wont to do. Up to now the words of Senator Lacson remained unanswered. They are met with deafening silence from her. I just wonder why,” Enrile said.
In a statement released by her office, Santiago said she would respond to the personal attacks against her by Enrile on Wednesday next week.
“Santiago is ill with chronic fatigue syndrome, and was unable to access her enemy’s privilege speech. Santiago ordered her staff to get a copy of the Senate Journal which is expected to print in full the Enrile speech, so that she can reply,” the statement read.