MANILA, Philippines - Senate minority floor leader Juan Ponce Enrile on Wednesday lashed back at her rival, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who has accused him of masterminding the P10-billion peso pork barrel scam.
In a televised privilege speech, Enrile referred to Santiago as an "obsessive hater" and said the allegation that he masterminded the pork barrel scam is an "outright lie" and a "baseless fabrication."
Santiago had been blasting Enrile for his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam. Last week, she said the former senate president should kill himself since the Supreme Court had declared the pork barrel system as unconstitutional.
"Enrile's arrogance has now been declared as bluff and bluster by the Supreme Court. At the very least, he should offer to commit hara-kiri because this dishonor belongs to him," Santiago said in a release.
During the testimony of Janet Lim-Napoles in the Senate Blue Ribbon hearing earlier this month, Santiago also urged the businesswoman to tell the truth already before the senators embroiled into the controversy have her killed.
But Enrile, one of the lawmakers accused in connection with the controversy, denied that he is capable of killing the suspected pork barrel scam operator.
"I never murdered anyone during all of my almost 90 years on this planet," Enrile said in his speech. "[F]or someone to say with impunity that I killed someone, whether here or anywhere else, or that I am planning anyone's murder, is the 'Grandmama' of all falsehood fabricators."
Throughout his speech, Enrile only attacked Santiago but refused to tackle the pork barrel scam.
But Enrile said that he will cooperate in the search for truth in the multi-billion peso scandal.
"I am aware that the public has been waiting for me to speak up on this matter, but for now suffice it to say that there will be a time and a more appropriate forum to deal in detail with the alleged PDAF scam," he said.
Along with Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr., Enrile is facing plunder charges before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly getting kickbacks from the pork barrel scam.
The senators have been accused of coursing their pork barrel funds to bogus non-government organizations allegedly set up by Napoles.
Last week, a newspaper report said that an official memorandum and an investigative team of the Office of the Ombudsman named Enrile as the mastermind of the pork barrel scam.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, however, denied receiving the official memorandum cited by the newspaper report.