Senate fireworks: From bonanza to ridiculous
She has no plans of filing an ethics case against Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on the issue of the P1.6 million distributed to 18 senators as additional office budget, lest the issue “sink to the level of the vulgar,” Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said.
Instead, the senator gave a “word of advice” to a packed hall of students at Centro Escolar University (CEU) in Manila on Friday, using an “old man” as example in what may be an apparent reference to Enrile.
“’Yung kalaban kong matanda … mahilig manligaw ’yan e, hanggang ngayon. Minsan nanligaw sinabihan n’ya ’yung babae, ‘nasa dugo talaga namin ang pagiging gwapo.’ Sabi naman ng babae, ‘bakit sa dugo lang, bakit hindi napunta sa mukha mo?’ (My foe, this old man, still likes to court women. He once told a woman, ‘being handsome is in our blood.’ And the woman said, ‘Why is it only in your blood? Why not in your face as well?’)”
She challenged Enrile and his cohorts in the Senate to a debate, a boxing match or a contest over who has the most beautiful legs.
“’Yung mga kalaban kong ’yan, punong-puno na ako sa kanila (I’ve had it up to here with them),” Santiago said. “Hinahamon ko sila na magdebate kami dito sa CEU. O gusto nila mag-boxing na lang kami (I challenge them to a debate or a boxing match),” the senator said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.
“Let’s compare legs to see who has the most beautiful legs. Mag-shorts s’ya, mag-shorts din ako (We can wear shorts),” she added.
Reconciliation rejected
Santiago’s attack against Enrile came just a day after the latter rejected the idea of reconciling with her.
“Ayoko nang batiin ’yung ayaw sa akin e. Mahirap makipag-usap sa mga lunar minds (I don’t want to reconcile with those who don’t like me. It’s difficult to talk with lunar minds),” Enrile said in a radio interview on Thursday, when asked if he was ready to patch things up with Santiago.
In her speech, Santiago also questioned the criteria used by the Senate leader in choosing the senators who received the P1.6-million MOOE (maintenance and other operating expenses).
The P1.6-million additional MOOE was withheld from four senators—Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, Senators Pia Cayetano, Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV and Santiago—known Enrile critics, who were only given P250,000 each.
Beauty, sex appeal
“Was it beauty? Hindi kami magaganda? Or sex appeal? Kulang kami sa sex appeal?” she asked.
Santiago cautioned students as well against copying in schools lest they end up like a senator who is now copying in the Senate.
One of the senators publicly accused of plagiarism was Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, a known ally of Enrile.
Although she herself might not be able to file a case in the Supreme Court as she might have to start work in the International Criminal Court in the Hague in March, Santiago said Enrile must be held accountable for the “questionable” distribution of the P1.6 million to 18 senators last December.
“Let Enrile be accountable to the people and his cohorts as well,” Santiago said.
‘Additional pork barrel’
“The basic legal and moral issue is when the Constitution provides that savings can be used ‘to augment other items’ … [can] the Senate President use the savings as part of Christmas bonuses to the senators in the guise of the so-called additional MOOE?” she asked.
“The first relevant factor here is why give additional office expenses to a senator when the year is over? Because for the next year, he will get his own MOOE. So very clearly, MOOE is simply a code name for the fact that, in effect, the Senate President is giving to every senator additional pork barrel to be spent at [their] discretion,” Santiago said.
The senator admitted that she accepted additional MOOE in previous years but did not complain about it because the amount then was “modest.”
She added: “I told you I have my own criteria. As long as it’s given to all senators, not just a few, and as long as liquidation is requested.”
While giving additional MOOE was being done in the past, Santiago said there should be a limit to it.
“When will I raise my voice? They’re asking me why didn’t you complain before? Suppose, for the sake of argument, I didn’t complain before. What stops me now from complaining [when I understand things fully only now]? Kasalanan ko ba ’yun (Was that my fault)?”
VACC complaint
But while Santiago might not be able to file a case against Enrile, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) is now readying an ethics complaint against the Senate President.
VACC chair Dante Jimenez said the group would file the complaint in the Senate committee on ethics next week, and would charge Enrile with violating the Constitution when he gave senators P1.6 million as additional MOOE.
The amount represented the balance of the total P2.2-million MOOE allotted for each senator. The first tranche of the budget, which amounts to P600,000, was given in November 2012.
“It’s immoral, it’s [a] violation of the Constitution with regard to equal protection [and] equal treatment and the best witness that we will have is Senator Santiago and other senators who have openly complained about this,” Jimenez said over the phone, though he admitted that he had yet to talk with Santiago.
The VACC official said the additional money given to 18 senators was “very unethical.” Any excess of money or savings must be turned over to the treasury, he added.
Jimenez said he could not understand why the government was imposing more taxes to generate funds when other agencies were giving away their savings.
“Where is justice there? Where is the moral ascendancy as far as [Enrile’s] office is concerned?” the VACC head said.
“If they say they have been doing this before, then why do they tolerate it?” Jimenez added.
