Personalan in Senate: After Cayetano speech, Enrile brings up old debt

(Updated 8:12 p.m.) The rift between Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano became personal Wednesday on the Senate floor, with Cayetano lamenting Enrile's treatment of the minority and even rebuking Enrile's chief of staff. In response, Enrile bared a multi-million peso debt allegedly incurred by Cayetano's late father many years ago. In a privilege speech, Cayetano said Enrile and his chief of staff Gigi Reyes have been giving him unfair treatment. He said this was probably because the two are close to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, of whom he was a critic. "Alam naman po natin paano ninyo po pinapatakbo ang Senado or more accurately how you and Atty. or Ma'am Gigi runs the Senate. Ako po madalas ninyo apihin Mr. Senate President Enrile ngunit never ko po kayo binastos. [I] always treated you with respect," he said. He specifically cited how Enrile only gave the second tranche of additional Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) funds to selected senators, which did not include him. He also said Enrile recalled his staff for no reason.   He also said he is not able to talk to Enrile directly about administrative requests, adding that he was offended when Reyes called them hypocrites on radio. Aside from this, he also accused the Senate president of preventing him from getting a seat in the Commission on Appointments and withholding promised committee chairmanships from him. "Umpisa pa lang ginawa na ninyong paraan na hindi ako makaupo sa Commission on Appointments kaya nag-filibuster pa ako dito kung naaalala ninyo," Cayetano said. "[Pero] hindi po ako umangal, I was a gentleman. Hindi po ako umangal sa publiko, I just took it, administrasyon niya ito, okay lang. Baka naman may kinainis kayo sa akin." "Let's call a spade a spade, bakit ba kayo inis at galit sa akin personally?" he added. Arroyo ties It was during this part of his speech that he accused Enrile and Reyes of being close to Arroyo. "Dahil dati na po kayo galit sa akin sapagkat napakalapit po ninyong dalawa ni Atty. Gigi sa dating pangulong GMA (Arroyo's initials) at kay First Gentlemen [Jose Miguel Arroyo]. Kasama naman po talaga kayo noon sa planning group at sa asar na isang katulad ko ay pwedeng tumayo sa Kongreso at labanan sila," he said. Cayetano also said Reyes was a close friend of their political rivals in Taguig, where his wife, Maria Laarni, is the incumbent mayor. "Hindi ba si Ma'am Gigi po best friend po niya ang asawa ni Justice [Dante] Tinga na nakalaban ng asawa ko sa Taguig at hipag ni Ma'am Gigi o sister-in-law niya ang isang konsehal sa Taguig na number one kritiko ng aking asawa," he said. "So every time naman na may hearing dito pati pag nandito si [Comelec] Chairman [Sixto] Brillantes, 'di ba sa opisina ninyo ang diretso? [Tapos] ako inuupakan at minsan tinutulungan ninyo pa kaya nagkakasagutan tayo after that I approach you and I just say we have different opinions, I never took it personally," he added. Cayetano said he won't go into the details of Enrile and Reyes' personal relationship, but revealed that he knew "a hundred truths." "Tempted po talaga ako Mr. President na sumagot, tempted ako na magsalita din ng ganyan. Bakit po ako tempted? Bakit po ako natutukso na sumagot? Dahil sa bawat isang kasinungalingan na inilabas sa akin na nilabas ninyo mayroon akong isangdaang katotohanan ang alam ko sa inyo at ni Ma'am Gigi," he said. "Ngunit hindi po ako magpapatukso, mamersonal o mawala sa issue. Hayaan ninyo na lang na naipaliwanag ko nang maikli man lang at maipagtanggol ang minana kong pangalan dahil yan lang pang kayamanan namin ng ate ko, ang Cayetano name na inalagaan namin," Cayetano added. Challenge to Enrile He challenged Enrile to show how the Senate has been liquidating its funds, which he said doubled during Enrile's term. He said that the Senate budget for MOOE went up from P750 million to P1.5 billion, of which P428 million is given to oversight panels and P1 million in MOOE to senators. "Ang matitira po sa senado a little over P600 million. So my question Mr. Senate President, paano po nili-liquidate itong P600 million? I was told a big part of this is being liquidated by certification," Cayetano said. "I challenge you to allow private auditing firms to look into the finances of the Senate," he added. P37-M Cayetano debt In response, Enrile stood up and bared a P37 million debt allegedly incurred by Cayetano's father, the late Senator Renato Cayetano, who was Enrile's former partner in a law firm. "Tungkol sa iyong yumaong ama ang masasabi ko lang nandito po hanggang ngayon hindi niya nababayaran na utang niya na ginastos niya sa opisina namin na itinayo ko para merong siyang pakain sa pamilya niya, P37 million na hanggang ngayon ay hindi namin sinisingil alang-alang lang sa pagsama-sama namin," he said. Cayetano, however, said he was not aware of any debt of his father and that Enrile was deviating from the topic. "My father worked for every single centavo. It's unfair for you to bring that up ehh kung sabihin ko sa 'yo ngayon na tatay mo ang may utang sa amin? Di ba paano naman nila mapapaliwanag wala naman sila?" he said. An excerpt of their exchange: Enrile: Eh ito ang record ng opisina namin. Cayetano: Kung may record kayo di pakita ninyo, singilin ninyo kami. Enrile: Pinapakita ko sayo, halika. Cayetano: Pinapakita ko rin sa inyo Mr. President na may utang na loob din kayo pero never ko naman siningil. Enrile: Anong utang na loob ko sa inyo? Cayetano: Hindi ho ba na pinagsilbihan kayo nang maganda [ng tatay ko]? Enrile: Ano ba yung bahay ninyo? Cayetano: Yung bahay po namin inutang sa bangko at nabayaran po yan, yan po ba ang issue? Enrile: Yung mga kahoy? Cayetano: Hindi ko po alam saan nanggaling ang kahoy. Enrile: Ikaw ang nag-umpisa niyan. Cayetano: Hindi po ako ang nagumpisa. Every time po na may issue, sasabihin ninyo sa akin di ka pa pinapanganak iho nagpapractice na ako.   Enrile: Alan, tama na. Akala mo yata hindi ako preparado sa mga sinasabi mo. Cayetano: Ang akala ko sasagutin ninyo ang issue sa Senado, hindi yung personalan. Enrile: Ikaw nag-umpisa. Cayetano: Hindi po ako nag-umpisa, tinatapos ko lang. Enrile: I will not go down to the gutter. Cayetano: You already went to the gutter. Your chief of staff has already gone to the gutter. This is irrelevant to our discussion here and you're bringing up things where a person who's already dead cannot answer. As the tension on the floor rose, Sen. Franklin Drilon moved to suspend session. During the session break, Enrile's blood pressure rose to 180/100 and he had to be given oxygen. Power to augment After a few minutes, however, Enrile took the floor again and immediately apologized for "the fracas" that happened. "It was not intended, I was just trying to answer certain personal assaults on my person but I will not deal with those matters anymore. Let it stay in the record and let divine spirit determine whose truth is the correct, where lies the truth," he said. "I have served this country for almost 50 years and been subjected to all kinds of investigations and in fact I was imprisoned twice. But I will leave that aside, I was simply taken by the very hard assault on my person but I will not deal with that, I would like to deal with the problem at hand," he added. Enrile emphasized he has no objection if an independent body would probe the Senate's finances. But he noted that as Senate president, he is allowed by the Constitution to augment savings, as was also stated by the Commission on Audit earlier in the day. "This has been a long practice being done not only now but every since the republic was started and so I will deal with the issue at hand," he said. Enrile then explained that the budget of the Senate for 2012 is P2.853 billion broken into six parts. With respect to the P600 million Cayetano wants liquidated, he listed down all the items under the MOOE items of the Senate secretariat which totals to P589 million. "This what is in our budget and these are all covered by the GAA," he said. In terms of the supposed P250,000 "cash gift" given to all senators last December, Enrile said it was given to augment the budget of other senators. He said he made the decision after Senator Edgardo Angara and Drilon "kidded" him about it on the Senate floor. "They must know that this is money of the people that must be used for public purposes.  I do not have to educate them about it," he said. Old practice He said he also stands by his decision to only give the second tranche of additional MOOE to senators from the majority. "This is a practice I have known since the birth of the Senate in 1940. The members of the minority were never given any chairmanship for any committee. You are not entitled to any privileges.  I was treated that way elected in 1987," he said. He said this was probably the "basis of resentment" by senators but that he takes "responsibility" for it. "The practice of giving MOOE to member of the Senate is not my invention, the liquidation system being used in the Senate was not invented by me. I inherited it," he said. Enrile also said it was only now that any senator complained about the system. "It was only now simply because I made the mistake of differentiating between the majority and the minority. Maybe if i did not do that, there would be no hulabaloo about this whole thing. [But] I stand by it so that's my explanation."  -- KBK/HS, GMA News