JPE: We’ll win this case

MANILA, Philippines - He is ready to spend time in jail even in the company of communist rebels and terrorists, but Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile said yesterday he is confident of acquittal in the plunder case being readied against him in connection with the pork barrel scam.

“What is the worst? I am confident that we will win this case,” Enrile said.

He declined to discuss his legal strategy, but insisted he is prepared to defend himself in court.

The Office of the Ombudsman is expected to file criminal cases – including plunder – against Enrile and several others before the Sandiganbayan next month upon the return of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales from an anti-graft seminar in the United States.

Plunder is punishable with life imprisonment. Two other opposition senators – Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. – have also been indicted for plunder.

“Pardon me for not discussing the case, and what I am going to do in the event that a case is filed against me. I’ve been trained in that art in the same way that you are trained in your art,” Enrile said.

Told that he might have as cellmates Communist Party of the Philippines head Benito Tiamson and his wife Wilma, and former police chief Avelino Razon, Enrile said he doesn’t mind at all.

“It’s okay, I don’t mind whoever will be my cellmate, even the Abu Sayyaf,” Enrile, the defense minister during the Marcos regime, said partly in jest.

Razon and several other police generals are detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Cell on graft charges in connection with the anomalous contract for the repair of V150 armored personnel carriers worth P400 million.

Enrile is no stranger to detention. Early in the past decade, police agents swooped down on his Makati City residence and arrested him for his part in the foiled May 1, 2001 siege of Malacañang. He was released a day after his incarceration at the PNP Intelligence Group facilities.

He admitted he is open to seeking some relief while in detention.

“Depending upon the circumstances. And if all of a sudden I get sick, and maybe I will ask for them to go to the doctor to have treatment. If they don’t want, I will take my chances,” Enrile said.

He declined to say if he would be requesting for house arrest.

“I am not thinking where I’ll get arrested. If they arrest me, period. If the case is filed, I think they have to determine whether there is probable cause or not. Because that is mandatory under the Constitution, so I leave it to the courts,” he said.

“You know, I am thinking about all possibilities. As a lawyer, when you study a case, you study the total (scenario), in whole. Don’t study your case half-baked so that you will avoid falls and surprises,” the veteran lawyer added.

Enrile also downplayed the emergence of various lists purportedly containing the names of lawmakers in cahoots with suspected pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

“I don’t mind them,” he said in Filipino. “As I have told you – list or no list, it doesn’t matter to me,” he said.

“So what if there is a list, I have a case, there is a case pending against me, so I will attend to it. I will deal with the case, study it,” he said, while expressing confidence in the impartiality of the courts.

“I’m sure our courts will be fair about this, I’ll have a fair chance of winning the case,” the senator said.

He also said he does not begrudge the police’s announcing preparations for his possible arrest.

“Of course, if you are in the police organization, you are anticipating possible case will be filed, at least as far as I’m concerned, I expect them to prepare for our detention,” Enrile said.

‘Don’t cry for me’

Revilla also said he has been preparing for any eventuality once the Sandiganbayan issues a warrant for his arrest.

He said he has advised his family not to cry for him if and when authorities arrive to arrest him.

“I’ve been telling them to prepare for anything because I am prepared for anything. I have been telling them not to cry lest they make our enemies gloat,” he said in Filipino.

Revilla said the controversy had been emotional and mental torture for him, and that he had opted to leave his fate to God.

Estrada also declared he is ready to get arrested, and is leaving it up to the Sandiganbayan or the PNP to determine where he and his senator-colleagues would be detained.

“It will be up to the Sandiganbayan to determine where we will be detained, once the information reaches the Sandiganbayan,” he said. “It is not for us to choose.”

When asked if he would do a Napoles by surrendering to Malacañang, Estrada said in jest that he would surrender to the “President,” referring to his father, former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.

Estrada said he has grown “immune” to reports regarding their possible arrest and to allegations of their having misused their pork barrel funds.

“They are really hell-bent on jailing the three senators. Whenever the three of us are mentioned, they say Janet Napoles, Benhur Luy and their lists are very credible,” Estrada said.

On the inclusion of the names of other personalities in the lists of those with shady dealings with Napoles, Estrada said the administration was singing a different tune, especially when the names of some of its allies turned up in the lists.

Estrada said he had received information that officials from the Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) had been visiting Napoles at the Ospital ng Makati to make sure he and his two Senate colleagues were pinned down for plunder.

“What are our chances of getting a fair shake? Of course if the DOJ makes an offer even if she does not get accepted to the Witness Protection Program, if there is a secret deal, we’re no match for them,” Estrada said in Filipino.

Meanwhile, Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. and his son, Sagay City Mayor Alfredo Marañon III, vehemently denied any involvement in the pork barrel scam, even if their names appeared in the list of Luy published in a national daily yesterday. “This is not disturbing, it is just irritating,” the governor said. With Danny Dangcalan