Santiago back in attack mode as she calls detractors ‘gay’, stupid’

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago attacked her political enemies anew on Friday, calling one “gay” and “stupid.”

“Kung hindi lang matanda yan, suntukin ko yan ngayon [If only he isn’t old, I would have hit him now],” Santiago said in Filipino at the annual convention of the Association of Nursing Service Administrators of the Philippines held at the Manila Hotel on Friday.

She did not name names but before making the remarks, she again talked about her allegation involving the alleged anomalous disbursement of funds in the Senate now being headed by Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile.

She referred to this person as the only one that has a port in the Philippines.

“They got P2 million this Christmas. They did not even give it to the poor. They gifted themselves, their luxuries, their mistresses,” she said,
eliciting laughter from the audience.

“And to those involved in smuggling, when the Supreme Court ruled against freeports and smuggling. You, Subic Bay, close shop but until now there is still smuggling in one port,” she said.

“In the whole Philippines, in the whole archipelago, he’s the only person who has a port where smuggling takes place. Is that our leader?”

“And he’s not even contented with himself. He even now has a junior. Imagine?”

Enrile’s son, Cagayan Representative Juan Ponce-Enrile Jr., is running for the Senate in the upcoming May elections.

Santiago then went on attacking another unnamed person, whom she initially described as one belonging to the “third sex.”

But the senator described this second unnamed person as the one who had questioned the use of Senate funds to pay the rent of her office.

It was only Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson who had openly questioned Santiago over her the use of funds for her office.

But Santiago said the Senate allowed them to use their funds to pay for the rent of their offices because their offices in the chamber were too small to accommodate their staff.

“I then asked this gay person, what did you do with the money allotted for the office. Do you mean that if you have a staff of 40 people, you would put them in a small space in the Senate office because we don’t have a Senate building, we are also renting,” she said.

“You aren’t renting. Where did you put the money that’s supposed to pay for the rent, in your pocket? You are pretending to be brave,” Santiago said.

And to her detractors, Santiago said she wasn’t afraid, wasn’t afraid of anyone because she wasn’t hiding anything from the public.