Minority Leader Juan Ponce-Enrile and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has put more distance between her and Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, this time in terms of legislation filed.
Quoting the Senate legislative bills and index service, Santiago said she has filed a total of 618 bills and resolutions as of Dec. 19, while Enrile turned in only 16.
The two senators have had a long-running feud that, in recent months, played out in the plenary hall.
After Santiago insinuated that he masterminded the pork barrel scam, Enrile took the floor on Nov. 27 and called her names, from the “grandmamma of all falsehood fabricators” to “peeping Tom.”
He dredged up her low marks in the bar examinations, her renting of her satellite office in her office building at Senate’s expense, and her admission to consulting a psychiatrist once.
Santiago fired back a week later, also calling him names such as “old man” and “Mr. Dementia” and linking him to human rights violations during martial law; smuggling hub in Port Irene in Cagayan province; a gambling empire and illegal logging concession.
Trailing Santiago in terms of legislation filed were Senators Jinggoy Estrada (543), Antonio Trillanes IV (249), Loren Legarda (136), Joseph Victor Ejercito (132), Ralph Recto (116), Francis Escudero (111), and Lito Lapid (101).
The others were Ramon Revilla Jr. (95), Cynthia Villar (85), Nancy Binay (77), Grace Poe (62), Juan Edgardo Angara (59), Pia Cayetano and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (56), Alan Peter Cayetano (36), Paolo Benigno Aquino IV (35), Gregorio Honasan III (32), Franklin Drilon (31), Vicente Sotto III (30), Sergio Osmeña III (28), Teofisto Guingona (26) and Aquilino Pimentel III (20).
In a statement, Santiago said she managed to turn in a big output even though she was forced to stay at home most of the time because of a chronic fatigue syndrome.
She said the syndrome has caused her to lose her sense of balance. And while she toured schools and universities for speaking engagements, she chronically suffered from “shortness of breath.”
The senator was elected judge of the International Criminal Court, and was due to resign from the Senate this year, and move to The Hague, Netherlands. But she has put this on hold as she “continues to struggle” against the syndrome, which has no known cause and cure, she said.
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