Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–All his bags are packed and he’s ready to go.
Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile on Monday said he was prepared to face the plunder charges against him and go to jail, rejecting suggestions that the authorities spare him from detention given his old age.
Enrile welcomed his indictment for plunder in the Sandiganbayan on Friday as an “opportunity” to prove his innocence.
Enrile said he would now have the chance to show that his former chief of staff, Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, and any of his staff did not receive any kickbacks for him from the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
As a lawyer, Enrile said he would not resist arrest once the Sandiganbayan issued a warrant.
“I’ve been prepared since several days ago. I’ve already packed up my things to bring to Camp Crame if that’s where we are going to be confined,” he told reporters.
Enrile thanked his colleagues for suggesting that he should be spared from detention.
“I thank them for that but I’m prepared. Even if I’ll die in my cell, it’s OK. At my age, I got through life already,” he said. He deferred to the authorities to decide whether he would be placed under house or hospital arrest.
The Ombudsman filed plunder charges against Enrile, Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr., their staff, and Janet Lim-Napoles on Friday in the Sandiganbayan.
Enrile said he was even open to the possibility of being served the warrant inside the Senate.
“I was served the warrant here in the Senate in 1990. It was here in the Senate where I was arrested,” he said of his arrest for rebellion complex with murder. “The second time I was arrested in 2001 was at my house.”
Enrile said he would exhaust all legal remedies to defend himself. He could not say yet if he would represent himself in court.
Meanwhile, Estrada said he would also deliver a privilege speech on Wednesday even as he decried what he called the “railroading” of charges against him.
“As I’ve said, it looks like the filing was rushed. It appears that she didn’t read our motion for reconsideration. And I disagree with what she said that we did not offer new arguments,” he said, referring to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.
Like his coaccused, he said he would “exhaust all legal remedies.”
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