Miriam: JPE behind plan to destabilize gov’t

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago yesterday accused her colleague Juan Ponce Enrile of being behind a plan to destabilize the Aquino administration with the involvement of at least half of the members of the Senate in pork barrel scam.

Santiago also called former senator Panfilo Lacson Enrile’s lackey.

“He is going to throw everything including the kitchen sink and his drones into this battle. This is a proxy battle. He is actually challenging President Aquino because the President appears to have closed all doors for negotiation,” Santiago said in a press briefing.

“That is what he is trying to do. He is going to destabilize society,” Santiago said, referring to Enrile.

Santiago believes Lacson wanted to divert the attention of the public from his own crime “by throwing mud at other people.”

Enrile, believed to be behind a number of coups against the late president Corazon Aquino, had also launched his own drones to destroy the integrity of other personalities, including those perceived allies of the administration, she said.

“Number two, he is going to try – as is his usual hobby – to stage a coup d’etat against President Aquino, he did that several times with President Corazon Aquino so that he could become president and spent his last 10 years to become 100 years old. That is his dream! Dream on!” Santiago said.

She said Enrile is bound to use his fabled wealth just to escape prosecution for plunder.

“He will gamble his entire career on destroying President Aquino by using trumped up scandal against the Aquino administration so that public attention can be diverted from the filing of plunder against him and two other senators,” Santiago said, referring to Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr.

Santiago said Enrile has been attacking President Aquino to divert the issue from the filing of plunder.

“He has sent his first drone today,” Santiago said, adding Enrile launched attacks against two Cabinet officials and Senate President Franklin Drilon.

A drone is a weapon of war, Santiago said, which Enrile used to maneuver to muddle the pork barrel scam that came out in a news story, which is based on anonymous sources.

Santiago earlier named Enrile, who is accused of plunder, as the “brains and financier,” of an alleged psy-war destabilization operation.

She said Enrile was behind the report tagging Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala as masterminds of the pork barrel fund scandal.

Santiago said the reports cited anonymous sources, claiming the most guilty in the pork scam are Aquino’s trusted allies in the Liberal Party.

Also implicated are Drilon and Sen. Francis Escudero.

Santiago was reportedly included in the list of suspected pork barrel fund operator Janet Lim-Napoles but she denied having misused her pork barrel allocations.

“I am confident that there is absolutely no evidence against me,” she said.

Napoles: Damaged goods

As far as Santiago is concerned, there is no need to summon Napoles back to the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, saying she is already considered “damaged goods.”

She also said Napoles is no longer a credible witness.

Santiago also did not rule out Napoles is now part of a game plan that involves at least three other people, all claiming to have a list of involved officials, apart from those charged by the ombudsman.

She said the list is being used as a threat and an enticement to the media to play up the story.

“What public interest is being served by making public that there is a list and refusing to divulge its contents?