Senators Estrada, Cayetano clash over pork probe

MANILA, Philippines—Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday tangled over the P10-billion pork barrel scam on their last session day before adjourning for Lent.

Piqued by Estrada’s claim he was grandstanding for 2016 by proposing the creation of special courts for the scam, Cayetano rose from his seat to deny this.

The nearly hourlong intense exchange opened a floodgate of pent-up issues between the two senators, including Estrada’s apparent hostile treatment of retired generals in a hearing on a military fund scam years ago.

Even Vice President Jejomar Binay was dragged in the heated exchange. But in the end, the two senators shook hands.

Cayetano said he meant well when he made the special court proposal and that this wasn’t part of his campaign for the 2016 presidential election. After all, he said, he hasn’t declared he is running for President.

So far, Cayetano said Estrada had not come clean on how much of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) was channeled to dubious nongovernment organizations (NGOs) set up by Janet Lim-Napoles.

Tarnished image

“This is not about 2016. This is about the people’s money,” Cayetano said.

Cayetano said the scam, in which Estrada, and Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. and Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile had been implicated, had destroyed the Senate as an institution.

He said the three senators had been given the chance to explain themselves, but began to issue statements only recently.

“So the first question I want to ask Senator Jinggoy is: Did we ever treat you differently from how you treated the witnesses in the committees?” he said.

Cayetano was referring to the late Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, retired Generals Carlos Garcia and Jacinto Ligot over a fund scam in the Armed Forces of the Philippines during the Arroyo administration. Reyes shot himself in the chest midway through the 2011 hearing in the Senate.

Estrada maintained that he had been “very respectful” of the witnesses, including Reyes, and insinuated that maybe it was their colleagues who had been tough on them.

“I never disrespected our resource persons. The death of General Reyes, that was not my doing. That was his choice; that was his decision.  I never disrespected General Reyes,” he said.

“The same is true of General Ligot, Mrs. Ligot and all the resource persons. I just wanted to ferret out the truth,” he added.

‘Grandstanding’

That hearing was in aid of legislation, unlike “what’s happening in the blue ribbon committee, where everyone who has political plans is grandstanding at our own expense,” Estrada said.

Estrada said he inhibited himself from the blue ribbon committee hearing on the scam because he believed that the court was the “proper forum” to explain his side.

Cayetano then retorted: “Why do we have a double standard? That’s also my question to VP Binay. Why, when GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) dared us to file charges against her in court, we said, ‘No, you’re the President, explain to the people.’”

If the proper forum was the court, he asked: Should the senators then keep silent “when the Senate keeps sinking, and everyone thinks we’re stealing?”

“Doesn’t the public deserve an answer? Where did you put your pork barrel? Did you know Napoles?” he said.

Estrada advised Cayetano to limit his questions on the former’s privilege speech, and not to drag Binay and Arroyo.

“They have nothing to do with my speech,” he said, gesturing with his hand.

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