Sen. Panfilo Lacson is planning to recommend to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile the issuance of a circular detailing the Commission on Audit’s rules on the liquidation of the Senate’s billions of pesos in funds for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).
The Senate is set to take steps to change the way the chamber uses its billions annually following the controversy over the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) of senators.
Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter on Friday called on Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to reveal how he liquidated the P250,000-per-senator cash gifts that he gave each senator last Christmas and how much of the almost P600 million in Senate funds for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) were turned into savings and realigned for other purposes.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile did not quit, so she did. “I believe what the public really hungers for is the truth about the officials they elected and how their money is spent or wasted. The people now believe that the Senate stinks,” Enrile’s chief of staff, Jessica “Gigi” Reyes said in a statement.
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Tuesday said she would conduct her own probe into the millions of funds that Senate President Juan-Ponce Enrile gave to his allies in the Senate last year, aside from a case that she intends to file before the Supreme Court.
An ethics complaint was filed against all senators who accepted cash gifts from Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile Monday.
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has what jokers may call bulalo (boiled beef or pork with vegetables) problem, but it’s not keeping her from blasting away at her enemies in a money quarrel in the Senate.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson wants graft charges filed against senators found to have misused Senate funds including the millions of pesos in maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) for their respective offices and staff.
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.
A warning against displeasing Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. This was the message behind the exclusion of four senators from the list of those who got P1.6 million each in additional budget from the Senate savings, Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano said.
Senator Panfilo Lacson admitted on Wednesday receiving P300,000 in additional funds from the office of Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile but denied that it was a bribe.
