Enrile's chief of staff Gigi Reyes apologizes for 'disrespecting' Cayetano

Published January 25, 2013 9:30am

(Updated 11:55 a.m.) Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile's chief of staff Atty. Gigi Reyes apologized on Friday to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano for "offensive statements" and an "act of disrespect" for not addressing him properly as a senator. In a statement, Reyes admitted she uttered "disrespectful and offensive statements and overbearing tenor" when she was interviewed on radio on Monday. Reyes said she committed an act of disrespect "in referring to His Honor as 'Alan' and not addressing him properly as an elected Senator of the Republic." "I do not mean this as an excuse for such unethical behavior but perhaps due to my long years of working in the Senate, almost all of 25 years, some of the younger senators and I have come to call each other on a first-name basis," she said. "But that is when we are in private conversations. Therefore, it was highly inappropriate for me to refer to Senator Cayetano simply as 'Alan,'" she added.

She also said she committed a "serious ethical breach" in saying that some of the senators were "hyprocrites" over a radio interview.

"I am sorry that I was driven by my emotional state, as the Senate President and I viewed and listened while Ms. Karen Davila and Mr. Vic Lima were obviously aghast and scandalized at Sen. Cayetano’s allegations, apparently believing them to be the whole truth about the disposition of the Senate’s budget," she said.

She added that her words then were her "own spontaneous reaction" and was not sanctioned by Enrile. "I...found his [Cayetano's] remarks that these were questionable and irregular very puzzling and yes, hypocritical. I really ought to have kept that feeling to myself," she said.

Controversy Reyes was dragged into the Senate maintenance fund controversy when when Cayetano, during his privilege speech on Wednesday, questioned her clout over Senate operations. This revived speculations about her alleged romantic relationship with Enrile, which the Senate president has denied. Enrile, on the other hand retorted, with a personal remark, citing the Php 37 million debt of the late Senator Rene Cayetano - Alan's father - in the beginning of his counter statement. The Enrile-Cayetano word war started when Cayetano questioned the uneven amount the senators had received from the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) fund Enrile had distributed. Amid the controversy, Reyes offered to resign from her post, the senator's office confirmed with GMA News Online on Wednesday. Enrile did not accept the resignation. However, in her statement on Friday, Reyes insisted that her resignation was irrevocable.

She explained that her resignation is but "proper" because of the "rightful indignation" Cayetano and possibly of the other Senators.

"I had no right to speak ill of any senator while I served in the Senate. I never once thought of myself as their equal. I was also expected to do as I preached to the other staff members of the Senate- that we must accord all of the Senators the respect due them, regardless of disagreements, personal or otherwise, among our principals. While I have practiced and kept this in mind all these years, last Monday, I was carried away by my emotions and for that, I sincerely apologize to Senator Alan Cayetano, to the rest of the Senators, and the listening public whose sensibilities I had offended," she said.

"A lie" Also in her statement, Reyes insisted that Cayetano lied when he said no one can go to the Senate President without her permission. "It is... a total lie that nobody can go directly to the Senate President unless they pass through me or my brother as Sen. Cayetano alleges. The Senate President and I have our hands full with people to meet, tasks to attend to, and my desk overflows with administrative work," she said. She also mentioned how she was now "being derisively called “the 25th Senator”- that used to be just a joke from some Senators every time they would kindly offer me to take a seat in meetings and caucuses. I never harbored any illusion or delusion that I am or will ever be their equal." "If Senator Alan Cayetano or the other senators resent my presence at the lounge or at their caucuses, I am sorry for that as well," Reyes said, explaining that the primary reason for her presence at the senator's lounge was the health situation of Enrile. "The Senate President, as he explained before, is suffering from both vision and hearing impairment. I, together with my legislative staff and his aide, assist him just to make things a bit easy for our boss who is almost 89 years old with age-related macular degeneration and high blood pressure problems," Reyes said. "Most of the time, the senators themselves call me to go down when they see that the Senate President is not feeling well," she added.

Reyes also said her brother's job is to attend to requests for medical assistance but that "many people, especially Sen. Alan Cayetano’s and Sen. Trillanes’ own chiefs of staff would rather approach him to relay requests addressed to [her] or the Senate President."

"That is much added burden to him. In that respect, being my brother has become more of a curse, and definitely not a perk to him," she said.

Authority to sign checks On the issue of Reyes being authorized by the Senate President to sign checks, the chief of staff explained that this was not an unusual practice. "As to my authority to sign checks, two of us in the staff were authorized in writing by the Senate President to sign the voluminous checks, payrolls and other administrative documents coming from the Secretariat on his behalf," Reyes said. "This is not an unusual practice even with the past Senate Presidents. It is purely administrative, and I never signed any Senate check without first the signatures of the heads of the offices involved in the process of disbursement and without the signature of the Senate Secretary," she added.

Enrile resignation

In fact, Reyes said her resignation is also due to an "honest difference" of opinion Enrile on how to respond to all "these mad and baseless accusations" of public fund misuse.

In her statement, Reyes revealed that she had prepared and submitted to Enrile last Wednesday a detailed response to the allegation that around P600 million of the Senate's budget iis under the sole disposition of the Senate president and that Enrile was allegedly misusing the said funds.

She explained that the P600 million represents the MOOE of the entire Senate secretariat, all expenses of which are covered by supporting documents and vouchers which are "available for all in the Senate to see."

Reyes likewise revealed that the speech contained a statement that Enrile was resigning irrevocably as Senate president, which she said he has been contemplating since Monday when his motion to declare his position vacant was defeated.

"Perhaps, if Senator Cayetano stuck to the real issue, Sen. Trillanes would be really happy by now as he would not have to sweat it out just to unseat the Senate President," she said.

She explained that she wanted Enrile to resign upon seeing only a "handful" of senators in the majority spoke up about the issue. Even the Senate secretary, she said, refused to speak about the issue.

"Not only was the exercise of discretion by the Senate President in question- it was the budget of the Senate itself. I had expected the other senators not so much to defend their own leader, but to clarify, explain and defend their own honor and the honor of the Senate," she said.

"The systematic disinformation and the malevolent attacks raged on, fuelled by Sen. Trillanes’ tireless pronouncements that a change in leadership was in the offing. I did not know what to make of the conspicuous silence of the other members of the majority. I grant that some of them just did not want to be embroiled in the fray," she added. — Andrei Medina and Kimberly Jane Tan /LBG/VVP/RSJ, GMA News

Tags: gigireyes, juanponceenrile, alanpetercayetano