AFTER a 10-day convoluted tirade between Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, the two senators finally called a “ceasefire” on what has become a bitter (and possibly, life-threatening) diatribe.
The very publicized feud and conflict between the nation’s two top officials started over Sen. Enrile’s distribution of P1.618 million each among members of the senate in December, for additional maintenance and other operational expenditures (MOOE).
Enrile reportedly sparked Santiago’s ire, after he excluded the feisty Senator and Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes III from receiving the said amount — only to be given P250,000 each.
However, the four senators were given the first tranche of P600,000 each in additional MOOE in November plus the P250,000 cash gift.
Santiago returned the P250,000 to Enrile, criticizing the act as “unconstitutional and unconscionable,” despite audit rules allowing the senate president to realign the chamber’s savings and to convert them into MOOE.
She also said that Enrile rejected her offering of Christmas cookies.
Santiago was advised by her physicians to take things easy — warning that the “slightest provocation” could trigger a serious stroke, the second time around. Santiago apparently burst a blood vessel in her right eye due to hypertension, following a TV appearance on Wednesday.
Former health secretary Esperanza Cabral (who also happens to be one of Santiago’s doctors) said that Santiago’s “political enemies might be dancing on her grave if she continues to fight them single-handedly.”
Enrile said that he will be praying for Santiago’s recovery and also appealed to the media “to stop questioning him about his conflict with the senator over the allegedly unequal distribution of Senate largesse,” reportedInquirer.net.
In a phone-patch interview, the senate president said: “If you please, don’t ask me any more questions just to pit the senators against one another. I don’t like that. Don’t destroy the image of the Senate, please.”
However, Enrile also said that his and Santiago’s mutual decision to make further statements on the MOOE does not constitute a ceasefire, because he does not have enemies.
Meanwhile, Sen. Panfilo Lacson has also expressed his own sentiments about the feud, making it known over public radio that “an unnamed colleague in the chamber in the chamber had listed his/her maids on the government payroll,” as reported by Inquirer.net.
Lacson said that he would rather have the Commission on Audit (COA) determine who this unnamed colleague is, based on the information that he provided.
After being referred to by Santiago as Enrile’s “attack dog,” Lacson fought back and accused Santiago of being a “crusading crook.” He also criticized Santiago for not saying anything about the first tranche of MOOE that her office received in November.
Santiago has not yet responded to Lacson’s accusations.
While strong personalities are a given among our country’s leaders, bickering is NOT the solution to any form of conflict.
As leaders and government officials, they should act as role models and resolve their differences through diplomatic means and according to the rule of the law. Such tirades are not only hazardous to their own personal health — they are also detrimental to the well-being and morale of the nation and its citizens.
Public service first, before politics.
(AJPress)
