Enrile OKs ‘fact-checking’ counter-SONA

MANILA, Philippines – He may be in detention but Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile is still advising opposition senators on steps to hold the Aquino administration accountable.

Senator JV Ejercito said Enrile approved his draft speech meant as a response to President Benigno Aquino III’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 28.

Ejercito is set to deliver the so-called “counter-SONA” before the Senate on Monday, July 11. He said the title of his speech is “Ang Tunay na Kalagayan ng Lipunan” (The Real State of Society).

The neophyte senator visited Enrile on Thursday at the Philippine National Police General Hospital where the 90-year-old lawmaker is detained over plunder charges in relation to the pork barrel corruption scandal.

“I consulted him and he said the contra-SONA is okay. I asked him to read my draft and he said it was written well. As minority leader, it’s still proper to still consult him from time to time,” Ejercito told Rappler in a phone interview on Friday, August 8.

Ejercito refused to comment on the criticism of his half-brother detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada that he is delivering the speech without authority from his fellow minority senators. The sons of former president now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada have a long-running sibling rivalry.

“Senator Enrile told me that if I’m asked whether it’s the contra-SONA of the minority or just my own, I should say that I’ll be speaking as an opposition senator. I was voted as an opposition senator and it’s my duty to tell the people what is really happening, what’s the real score,” Ejercito said.

Ejercito added that if his colleagues give him their inputs, then it is the stand of the minority but if not, “I’ll just use it as my own privilege speech.”

The senator said his staff is set to meet with the chiefs of staff of the other minority senators on Friday to seek their recommendations on his draft.

Also part of the Senate minority are Acting Minority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Senator Gregorio Honasan II and Senator Nancy Binay.

Ejercito said he did not consult his father about his speech. “We don’t see each other that much.” 

Yolanda, Zambo visit shows SONA ‘inaccurate’

The Senate minority is now down to 4 members, with the detention of Enrile and Estrada on charges they siphoned off development funds to bogus non-governmental organizations in exchange for multi-million-peso kickbacks. (READ: Weaker Senate opposition without Enrile?)

This will be the first counter-SONA for the Enrile bloc, the self-styled “constructive opposition,” which has claimed to support Aquino but not his partymates in the ruling Liberal Party (LP) and key policies of his Cabinet like the conditional cash transfer program. The speech is Ejercito’s initiative.

Four years into the Aquino administration, Ejercito said it is about time the minority points out issues that the President is not giving enough attention to. “Knowing his personality, his Cabinet men might just be telling him the good news.”

Ejercito said the speech will check the figures and claims in Aquino’s SONA. 

The senator said he even sent his staff to provinces hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) and to Zamboanga to check Aquino’s statement that the government swiftly responded to these crises.

“That’s why it took long because I had to ask my staff to go and verify. In fact, specially for Yolanda and Zamboanga, it’s not only us but also the media and other people think that what was reported to the President is not accurate. The rehabilitation is not going as planned. On the contrary, it seems nothing has been moving in the Yolanda-affected areas,” he said.

Aquino’s statement that the government “wasted no time in responding” to the typhoon was among the most controversial in his SONA, with aid groups also questioning the pace of rehabilitation. (READ: SONA Fact Check: Half-truths about Yolanda)

Ejercito said other topics he will raise are the power crisis, the government’s alleged lack of preparation for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area in 2015, job generation, and data on what he called “the real inclusive growth.”

“I wanted to hear about a blueprint, a roadmap regarding the power. Also infrastructure. With the growing population, we need to put in the necessary infra. Highways are okay but we also need mass transit. It has to extend to the nearby provinces,” he said.

Aquino mentioned energy in his SONA, but only tasked Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla to consult with Congress and key stakeholders to come up with a solution to what Petilla predicted would be a power crisis in 2015.

The President also highlighted many infrastructure projects in his SONA but Ejercito said he did not elaborate on addressing Metro Manila’s congested public transportation system.

DAP: Why mostly for allies?

Ejercito said he also plans to look into how the administration spent funds pooled under the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), key practices under which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional.

He cited a report of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) that the districts of administration allies and officials got bigger shares under the DAP compared to other lawmakers.

On budget deliberations, Ejercito said: “We will look into how DAP was spent in the past. For example, we discovered the biggest DAP recipient is Batanes so we have to make sure this doesn’t happen; that it’s distributed equally to all the districts. We want to make sure there’s no favoritism.”

Ejercito added that the counter-SONA is part of the minority’s efforts to ensure checks and balances in the Senate despite the loss of its two members.

Even Senate President Franklin Drilon welcomed it as a sign that the Senate withstands controversies.

“On Monday, JV Ejercito will deliver an anti-SONA speech so work in the Senate continues notwithstanding the detention of our colleagues,” Drilon told Rappler. – Rappler.com