Miriam resumes tirade against JPE

MANILA, Philippines - After being absent from the public eye for 22 days due to illness, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago appeared in a forum on Tuesday afternoon at the University of the Philippines in Manila and resumed her tirade against Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

Santiago told students at the jampacked UP Little Theater that she had been absent from the Senate because of hypertension and a chronic bone marrow disorder, because she was exasperated with “the low IQ” of some senators.  

She pointed out that millions of Filipinos are going hungry yet her colleagues in the Senate received more than P1 million in additional fund for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE). 

In earlier interviews, Santiago had accused Enrile of abusing his authority to realign Senate savings when he gave some senators Christmas gifts last December of P1.6 million each, except four senators who were tagged as Enrile critics.

Santiago, along with Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano and Senators Pia Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV, each received only P250,000 from Enrile. 

Santiago returned the P250,000.

“It was given as a Christmas bonus and then they made it appear that I am the bad person here. After this election campaign break, I would challenge them to a fistfight. They are just brave but if not for their stem cell treatment they would not have been able to stand up,” she said.

Santiago did not name names,  but Enrile has admitted he has received stem cell treatment.

Santiago reiterated her earlier threats to file a resolution to conduct an inquiry into the veracity of the accounts in Enrile’s memoir.

“It will be my privilege as a senator (to file a case against Enrile). I have already prepared to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation in the testimony of Gen. Ramon Montano, who incidentally is a senatorial candidate, who used to be chief of the Criminal Investigation Service of the Philippine Constabulary, that was before we had the Philippine National Police (PNP),” said Santiago.

She added, “Remember just before the proclamation of martial law – at that time Juan Ponce Enrile was defense secretary, and he announced that he was attacked or ambushed while driving in his vehicle on his way to his house in Dasmariñas Village. Investigation was conducted by a team of which Gen. Montano was a member and they found that the claim of ambush was totally fake, it had no basis.”

She said she was also puzzled that there were bullet holes in the car yet nobody reportedly died from the shooting incident. The incident was reportedly used as a basis for the proclamation of martial law.

Santiago said that when Corazon Aquino became president, Enrile recanted the earlier story and said that the ambush was staged.

“He is on record and that is already included in some of the books written about martial law,” Santiago added.

She reminded the Senate President of the Penal Code, which holds accountable a public official who issues false stories.

“There is a crime for unlawful publishing when you print as news what is completely false and it affects the interest of the state, that could be one crime against him.”

She said another crime that could be filed against Enrile is falsification by a public official. 

“That is why it is important that we know the real story behind this ambush. If it would be proven that what Gen. Montano said was true and Enrile lied, he should face the law. If you are telling a lie in one thing, then it has to be presumed that you were lying in everything else.”

If there would be basis for filing charges, the case would be filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ).