Enrile committed 'grave abuse of discretion,' Miriam tells COA

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile committed "grave abuse of discretion" when he gave cash gifts and additional funds to senators, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago insisted on Tuesday. In a statement, Santiago said she sent a letter to Commission on Audit (COA) chair Grace Pulido-Tan to correct her opinion that Enrile has asbolute power to realign savings to Christmas bonuses. "As a student of constitutional law, I fear that you may have been expressing a casual opinion. Hence, I take the liberty of citing certain constitutional provisions which might be of help in your written compliance on my earlier request for opinion," she said. Santiago, who is currently on indefinite sick leave from the Senate, released the statement a day after Enrile moved to vacate his post amid what he described as "outright lies, distorted information and deliberately misleading phrases." The senators, however, voted 11-3 with two abstentions to retain him. Santiago filed an indefinite leave due to hypertension and chronic bone marrow disorder. In her statement Tuesday, Santiago said by handing out cash gifts and additional funds to senators, Enrile committed an act “tantamount to grave abuse of discretion, amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction, which can be questioned in the Supreme Court.” No blanket authority She explained that the law covering this issue is the General Appropriations Act of 2012. However, she said this does not give a blanket authority for realignment.   "It is necessary that the budgetary item that will be augmented exists. Savings cannot be used to fund a non-existent program, activity, or project,” Santiago said. “The issue is not the existence of the power, but the legitimacy of the exercise of that power.” She also said the "consensus" among budget authorities in the country is that "in the absence of any request for augmentation, none should be given." Santiago said no senator made a request for augmentation. “The exercise of the power to realign should not be tainted by grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction. Otherwise, it becomes ripe for litigation before the Supreme Court,” she said. “Even with the power to realign, in the absence of the power to distribute financial incentives, the Senate President cannot give away year-end bonuses to senators,” she added. Excluded senators Santiago also said the exclusion, for no stated reason, of senators from the alleged augmented MOOE “is a shocking abuse of discretion amounting to excess of jurisdiction, under the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.” Santiago was among the senators — all perceived critics of Enrile — who did not receive additional funds from the Senate president. Santiago continued: “A fiscally responsible Senate President should be sensitive to the sources of financing – taxes and user charges paid for by the general public. A fiscally responsible Senate President should let the amount unused (or saved) revert to the National Treasury.” — Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMA News