Foes to Enrile: You didn’t address fund issue

MANILA, Philippines - The gut issue of fund misuse was not addressed.

This was the message of critical senators to Juan Ponce Enrile, a day after he received a vote of confidence from 11 senators when he declared the Senate presidency vacant.

By making his colleagues vote to keep him as Senate president last Monday, Enrile was able to preempt moves to oust him and evade calls for an audit of Senate expenses, Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said yesterday.

Cayetano also lashed out at Enrile and his chief of staff Gigi Reyes for their “personal” attacks on him after he questioned the propriety of the Senate president’s “Christmas gifts” to fellow senators. He also called Enrile’s offer to quit a “drama.”

“Gigi and JPE do not understand that this is not their money. The funds of the Senate are the money of the people. You cannot choose which senator’s office will be given funds and which will not and you cannot give these as Christmas gifts,” he added.

Enrile earlier gave his colleagues P1.6 million each, except Cayetano and his sister Pia, and senators Miriam Santiago and Antonio Trillanes IV who only got P250,000.

Santiago, in a letter to Commission on Audit chairperson Ma. Gracia Pulido-Tan, said officials’ power to realign funds “should be exercised for a public purpose” under the Constitution “otherwise, it becomes ripe for litigation before the Supreme Court.”

“If we have a private auditing firm do the accounting there will be no shadow of doubt. COA’s budget also comes from us so others might have a perception that they are beholden to us. An independent firm won’t risk ruining their name to appease a senator,” Cayetano said, for his part.

His sister Pia said she decided to turn over the check she received from Enrile to the Department of Social Welfare and Development. She said she did not know why she had been given a smaller share of the funds, purportedly for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) in the final days of December 2012.

“The additional MOOE was supposed to be released to all senators’ offices. Thus it came as a complete surprise to me to hear that I was excluded. In fact to this day I do not know the reason why,” Cayetano said.

With his colleagues’ vote of confidence, Enrile meanwhile said there is no reason for him to renew his offer to quit the Senate presidency.

– With Christina Mendez, Delon Porcalla, Evelyn Macairan, Eva Visperas