Invite Gadhafi to Senate probe, Fidel Ramos tells Senator Miriam Santiago
Ask the man himself.
The Senate should invite ousted Libyan president Moammar Gadhafi to an inquiry if it wants to learn more about his alleged P5-million donation to the presidential campaign of Fidel V. Ramos in 1992.
Ramos himself made the suggestion on Tuesday after his political nemesis, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, called for a Senate probe of the supposed donation that was revealed by antisecrecy website WikiLeaks.
Santiago has filed a resolution seeking an investigation by the blue ribbon and electoral reforms committees.
Philippine electoral laws prohibit foreign donations to political campaigns.
Santiago said that while Ramos had served his term and could no longer be removed from office, she was confident he could still be charged with violating the Revised Penal Code.
A WikiLeaks cable released on Sept. 2 said that shortly before the May 1992 elections, Ramos and soon-to-be Speaker Jose de Venecia flew to Tripoli supposedly to negotiate a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front.
Santiago said in an impromptu press conference Monday that Ramos and De Venecia actually went to Libya to get the P5 million from Gadhafi for Ramos’s campaign.
Ramos denied this in a statement sent to Senate reporters Tuesday.
He accused Santiago of “wanting to put me behind bars, (which) is not new.”
“Some years ago, she publicly accused me of trying to assassinate her by bumping a military jeep into her vehicle, which is the reason, according to her, for her various chronic ailments,” Ramos said in the statement.
He said the WikiLeaks report “is hearsay by itself, and is further based on a string of successive hearsay conversations…”
“If I may suggest respectfully: Please also invite Colonel (Gadhafi)… to the same Senate investigation desired by Senator Santiago… As per his own statement on worldwide media the other day, (Gadhafi) is still very much alive (not hearsay), and may be available to shed light on this matter,” Ramos said.
Santiago, who ran for president as the standard-bearer of the People’s Reform Party in 1992, has consistently protested her defeat to Ramos who belonged to Lakas-NUCD-UMDP.
“Just because Ramos has finished his term as president–and after prosecuting Santiago through paid media–Ramos should not be allowed to get away with a bare denial of his apparent crime,” said Santiago in her resolution.
