The demeanor of Sen. Juan Ponce-Enrile during a hearing at the Senate on Friday sent one student who went to watch the proceedings trembling in fear.
Mark Jemel Galez, 19, a broadcast journalism student of La Salle-Dasmariñas, Cavite, drew the ire of Enrile for taking photos of the senator using his handy video camera.
Enrile got peeved and asked the student: “Who are you? Why are you taking my picture? Come here.”
Galez went a bit closer to Enrile to explain but his voice was too soft to be heard by the crowd. Enrile later reportedly told him “to get out of this room.”
Enrile said people should not be taking photographs without permission. The student went to his seat but immediately went out when signaled to do so.
The senator went on with his tirades, saying, “My face is ugly enough I don’t want it to be seen in pictures.”
After the hearing, Enrile approached the fellow students of Galez and told them that “if something happens to me, you will all be responsible.”
Some reporters who went to talk to Galez said the student seemed so nervous that he was shaking.
He was also obviously embarrassed because many people witnessed the incident, which ironically, occurred during the hearing of the budget of the Commission on Human Rights.
During a recent hearing on the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, businessman and special envoy Donald Dee also received a tongue-lashing from Enrile for supposedly being pushy and “threatening” in his defense of the accord.
Enrile told Dee to “get the hell out of here” if he would continue to compel senators to approve the JPEPA.
Aside from Enrile, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago is also known for her strictness in holding hearings.
She said she would cite for contempt anybody caught with his cellular phone on during hearings.
The senator once lost her cool because people kept on going in and out of a room where she was holding a hearing on the budget of one department.
Santiago said she did not like getting distracted by people and Senate staff “acting like senators” and disrespecting ongoing proceedings.