Minority Leader Juan Ponce-Enrile and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Senator Miriam Defensor -Santiago has formally requested the Senate to allow her to respond to the “personal insults” made by Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce-Enrile last week.
“This is to confirm in writing my request— conveyed verbally by my chief of staff – for time to deliver a privilege speech this Wednesday, December 4, 2013, immediately after Reference of Business,” Santiago said in her letter to Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano this Tuesday.
“I am sick and have energy for only two hours, after which I am attacked by chronic fatigue syndrome,” she said.
“I shall reply to the personal insults hurled against me by Senator Juan Ponce Enrile in his privilege speech,” Santiago added.
Enrile broke his silence last week and answered all the allegations hurled at him by an unnamed senator, who he repeatedly described as his “obsessive hater.”
While he did not name Santiago, Enrile answered point by point his colleague’s earlier public statements that branded him “murderous,” “mastermind” of the P10-billion “pork barrel” fund scam and “financier” of the failed Zamboanga siege last September.
Related stories
Enrile breaks silence, hits Santiago in speech
Enrile breaks silence, slams ‘obsessive hater’
Santiago says Enrile financed Zamboanga attack