SUMMARY
This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
MANILA, Philippines – Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile plans to deliver a privilege speech after being named as the alleged brains behind the multi-billion-peso pork barrel scam.
Enrile said that he will deliver a speech on Wednesday, November 27, but refused to divulge the topic or any detail.
“I will just say something. ‘Di ko nga masasabi sa inyo. Antayin na lang ninyo. I do not write good speeches. I’ll try,” Enrile told reporters on Tuesday. (I can’t tell you what about. Just wait for it.)
Asked if his speech will be explosive, Enrile said, “Hindi naman. ‘Di naman ako Yolanda eh.” (Not really. I am not Yolanda.)
The former Senate President was referring to Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), the world’s most powerful typhoon that killed over 5,000 in central Philippines and affected 10 million.
Enrile’s speech comes after he asked the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate a Philippine Daily Inquirer report saying that its investigators supposedly named him, not Janet Lim Napoles, as the mastermind of the scam. In the scam, lawmakers allegedly channeled their pork barrel to Napoles’ fake non-governmental organizations in exchange for millions of pesos in kickbacks.
The Senate leader is among 38 individuals facing a plunder complaint before the Ombudsman over the scam.
Enrile’s lawyers wrote the Ombudsman on November 22 asking it to probe the report and clarify the existence of any memo naming him as the mastermind. Enrile has decried involvement in the scam, calling the Inquirer report outrageous and fake.
In a previous statement to the Inquirer, Enrile said he will deliver a privilege speech to disprove the report.
“I will explain why it is a lie,” Enrile had said.
In their letter to the Ombudsman, Enrile’s lawyers said, “If there is any such memo from within your office…there appears to be no point in asking Senator Enrile to answer the accusation against him, since your officers who shall supposedly handle the preliminary investigation have already officially determined that the Senator is not only guilty but even the ultimate mastermind.… This prosecutorial misconduct has certainly converted the entire preliminary investigation process into a moro-moro.”
Yet on Tuesday, Enrile clarified that he still trusts the integrity of the Ombudsman’s probe and was only questioning the leak of the alleged memo.
“Tungkol lang doon sa sinabi ng isang peryodiko na ako raw ang utak.” (It was just about what the newspaper said that I am the alleged brains.)
Enrile said he has received the Ombudsman’s order for him to file a counter-affidavit in the plunder case within 10 days.
The senator’s close ally and co-accused, Senator Jinggoy Estrada, also delivered a privilege speech in September blasting the supposed “selective justice” against opposition lawmakers in the filing of the plunder complaint.
In his speech, Estrada also revealed that lawmakers who voted to convict former Chief Justice Renato Corona got P50 million each after the impeachment trial. The administration eventually admitted that the money came from the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) but denied it was a bribe. The DAP is now the subject of a Supreme Court case.
Jinggoy: Case batch 2 shows selective justice
Incidentally, Enrile’s speech comes on the day the justice department is set to file the second batch of cases in relation to the scam.
Levito Baligod, lawyer for the whistleblowers, had said that malversation charges will be filed against at least 10 former lawmakers on Wednesday. Baligod told the Inquirer that 6 lawmakers were not included in the case because they are now dead.
Estrada criticized Baligod’s revelation.
“That just bolsters my claim that the government is really selective. Basta nakita mo naman ang 10 lahat congressman, ang iba out of power, ang iba namatay na. Talagang namili, para ma-appease ang tao. Talagang 3 lang kaming pinupuntirya,” Estrada told reporters on Tuesday.
(You can see they will only charge 10 congressmen, some already out of power while the others already died. They really just chose to appease the people. It’s just the 3 of us they are pinning down.)
Estrada has criticized Justice Secretary Leila de Lima for the delay in the filing of the second batch of cases related to the pork barrel scam.
The first batch was filed last September while the department filed a separate plunder complaint over the alleged misuse of the P900-million allocation for the agrarian reform department of the Malampaya Fund in October.
Estrada also said he too has received the Ombudsman order to file a counter-affidavit but his lawyers will ask the agency for a 10-day extension “because there are voluminous documents for them to read.”
On Monday night, Estrada grilled anew COA Chairperson Grace Pulido-Tan and slammed the supposed biased probe and the “sanitized” documents that the budget department turns over to the COA.
Tan in turn said Estrada’s staff had signed a memorandum of agreement attesting to the legitimacy of the Napoles NGOs.
Estrada said he will just answer all allegations against him when the case reaches the Sandiganbayan. – Rappler.com
Add a comment
How does this make you feel?
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.