Enrile wants probe into leaked memo on ‘pork’ scam

By: Maila Ager - 10 years ago

Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce-Enrile wants the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate and discipline those allegedly involved in the leak of an “inexistent” report tagging him as the mastermind of the P10-billion “pork barrel” scam.

Enrile, in a statement on Thursday, also demanded an apology from the Philippine Daily Inquirer , which published the alleged memorandum by an investigating of the Office of the Ombudsman that named him the mastermind of the scam.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer is standing by its report.

Please read the attached PDF file of 8 of the 246-page memo obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

He said he has instructed his lawyers to request the Ombudsman to investigate and discipline all those had leaked the report “including, but not limited to, securing emails and phone records of the persons from the Ombudsman’s Office and the Inquirer named in the report.”

The alleged erroneous report, Enrile said, was “merely the latest and most outrageous of a series of supposed leaks by the Inquirer, clearly intended to malign and defame him.”

“The pattern is clearly designed to try (me) by publicity. This is a violation of due process and a clear breach of journalistic ethics,” he said.

Enrile said his lawyers were writing the Inquirer to demand an apology and to require that the Ombudsman’s denial be given the same prominence as that of the false report.

The senator also demanded the Inquirer to cooperate fully with the Ombudsman’s investigation of this fake leak and disclose who was responsible for it.

Enrile, likewise, called on the National Press Club to call the attention of the Inquirer, its publishers, its editors and its reporters to be fair and circumspect in its future reporting.

The opposition leader maintained his innocence and his determination to cooperate fully with the Ombudsman to bring to justice all those who are truly responsible for this scam.