“Doon sa mga nag-iisip na sana patay na ako, you will have your wish one day,” Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile said in jest after the Senate media and employees sang a birthday song for him on Thursday.
(Those who are wishing I were dead, you will have your wish one day.)
Enrile will turn 92 years old on February 14.
“Thank you very much. For those who love me, thank you very, very much. For those who hate me, thank you. For those who don’t care for me one way or the other, thank you just the same. Trabaho lang ito at para sa bayan (I am just doing my obligation for the country),” he said after guesting at a weekly forum in the Senate.
It was the first time that the senator faced the Senate forum since he posted bail in August last year for plunder charges in connection with the pork barrel scam.
READ: Enrile’s poor health, old age justify his release on bail–SC
“It’s nice to be here and I’m ready to answer your questions. The harder, the better,” he said at the start of the forum.
Enrile then answered all the questions thrown at him, including those about his health condition.
“Well, I’m having a hard time to hear you. I could hardly see you, I’m having a problem walking because my balance is bad, that’s why I have people beside me and I hold on to people,” he said.
Asked about a report that medical specialists were studying his alleged “miraculous” recovery from being in his sickbed in a detention, Enrile called it was a lie and “silly.”
READ: Scientists studying ailing PH senator’s miraculous recovery
He said the report, including the two photos of him supposedly showing his physical condition before and after he was allowed to post bail by the court.
“That’s silly. Alam mo sasabihin ko sayo, kalokohan. Nabasa ko ‘yun e. ‘Yung nilabas nila na litrato ko before I was bailed? Totoo ‘yun, inakay ako, I was going in the car from the PGH when that picture was taken,” Enrile said.
(That’s silly. You know it’s baloney. I actually read it. The one showing my picture before I was bailed? That’s true, I was being assisted going in the car from the PGH when the picture was taken.)
“Yung pangalawang litrato, luma ‘yun . Nakuha ‘yun sa Batasang Pambansa, naka Barong Tagalog ako during a state of the nation address kaya makita mo ‘yung mga tauhan ko, naka Baranong Tagalog din, meron silang mga tag, identification kaya kasinungalingan ‘yun.”
Enrile also laughed off the comparison of his case to that of the Lazarus syndrome.
“I’m rising from the dead, I don’t like to compete with Jesus Christ,” the senator added. IDL