Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile on Thursday thanked Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales “for denying the Inquirer banner story that purportedly named him the ‘mastermind’ of the pork barrel scam.”
Enrile’s legal team is 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,” according to a statement by the senator’s lawyer, Enrique dela Cruz.
“[Enrile] demands the Inquirer to cooperate fully with the Ombudsman’s investigation of this fake leak and disclose who is responsible for it,” the statement said.
The Ombudsman is being urged to investigate and discipline all those involved in the leak of a non-existent report, “including, but not limited to, securing e-mails and phone records of the persons from the Ombudsman’s Office and the Inquirer named in the report.”
Enrile said the report 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 him by publicity. This is a violation of due process and a clear breach of journalistic ethics,” the statement read.
Enrile asked 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.”
“Senator Enrile maintains his innocence and his determination to cooperate fully with the Ombudsman to bring to justice all those who are truly responsible for this scam,” the statement said.—Norman Bordadora
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