Miriam has most number of bills, resolutions

MANILA, Philippines - Chronic fatigue syndrome failed to stop Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago from being the top-ranking senator in terms of the number of bills and resolutions filed since the start of the 16th Congress.

In a statement, Santiago was quick to note that her nemesis, Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, was at the bottom of the list with a total of only 16 bills and resolutions filed under his name.

Based on the Senate legislative bills and index service, Santiago filed the most number of bills at 437, 436 of which she was the principal author.

She also filed 181 resolutions, 179 of which were introduced by her.

In contrast, Enrile filed only three bills and was co-author of 13 resolutions.

After Santiago, the other senators who were among the most prolific in terms of filing bills and resolutions were Senators Jinggoy Estrada with 543, Antonio Trillanes IV with 249, Loren Legarda with 136, JV Ejercito with 132, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto with 116, Francis Escudero with 111, and Manuel Lapid with 101.

Apart from Enrile, the other senators who filed the least number of bills and resolutions were Aquilino Pimentel III with only 20, Sergio Osmeña III with 28, Deputy Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III with 30, Senate President Franklin Drilon with 31, Gregorio Honasan II with 32, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV with 35 and Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano with 36.

Santiago said that in spite of her being sick and unable to report for work at the Senate, she managed to file the highest number of bills and resolutions among all 24 senators just as she did in the past.

Santiago and Enrile have been engaged in a long-standing war of words, which has led to bitter allegations and a probe by the Department of Justice on Enrile’s alleged involvement in anomalies.

The bitter war of words between the two started in December 2010 when Santiago revealed that she returned the P250,000 cash gift given to her by Enrile, who was then the Senate president.

“He returned my biscuits so I returned his cash,” Santiago said, referring to her gift of a native delicacy from Iloilo, which she apparently gave to every senator.

Santiago also revealed that on top of the P250,000 cash gift from Enrile, almost all of the senators were also given P1.6 million from the savings of the Senate.

She said only Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, his sister Sen. Pia Cayetano, Trillanes and herself did not receive the P1.6 million from Enrile because they were critical of his leadership.

The issue drew widespread criticism from the public after it was revealed just how much most of the senators were receiving in terms of funds for their respective offices and how most of these were not being liquidated for auditing purposes.