By Angie M. Rosales
The Daily Tribune
The Daily Tribune
Lead investigator of the blue ribbon committee hearing, Sen. TG Guingona, appeared to have thought nothing amiss in or even out of line statements coming from Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago last Thursday when she went into an insulting harangue against her political foe, Sen. Juan Ponce-Enrile, accusing the senator of being the “Godfather of the pork barrel scam,” saying that his DNA is all over the P10-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), more commonly known as pork, despite the clear lack of facts and evidence to substantiate her charges.
She said Enrile can only be the brains behind the pork scam because he is oldest senator today and that he is the most guilty, while Janet Lim Napoles, she said, is the innocent one in the allegations of her being the brains behind the scam.
She also charged that Enrile and the other accused senators in the scam are out to murder Napoles, without an iota of evidence pointing to the accused senators, and even Enrile, of planning to assassinate Napoles.
Santiago came out with wild accusations against her political foe, with whom she has a long standing feud, as she tried to persuade Napoles who had earlier during her testimony in the Senate, cleared the three accused senators of having anything to do with the pork scam, to turn state witness, as she is not the most guilty, because she pointed to Enrile as the brains behind the pork scam, and not Napoles.
Guingona, as well as the other senators present during the hearing, did not stand up to protest at the wild and unsubstantiated charges to say that Santiago was out of line or to cut her one-hour harangue, even when her conduct was clearly unparliamentary and not worthy of a senator of the republic.
In a TV interview yesterday, Guingona was quoted as saying that “Every senator is responsible for their utterances, their opinion. And I’d just like to leave it at that. And Senator Santiago, I’m sure has some basis for (saying) that,” which was in essence in agreement with Santiago’s accusations of murder and brains of the pork scam against Enrile, as he did say she has basis for her accusations.
Guingona must have realized how damaging his statement was, as he refused to discuss the issues raised by Santiago against Enrile during the nearly six-hour public hearing.
“I would not like to go into that. That’s between Miriam (Santiago) and JPE (Enrile),” he said when pressed to affirm or deny some details divulged by the lady senator in grilling Napoles during the hearing.
Santiago attempted to make Napoles confess before them when she tried to lure her into admitting that she is the least guilty and for her to identify the most guilty, who to Santiago is Enrile.
“If Enrile is the most guilty, tell us now so he won’t be able to have you assassinated. Don’t underestimate Enrile. ‘Tanda’ (old man) may be over 98, but he is still capable of murder,” Santiago said, noting the tag Napoles supposedly used to refer the minority leader by her former employees-turned accusers.
Santiago tried to even picture Enrile as a thug with a mentality of a military man, telling Napoles that whenever the minority leader would relieve himself in the men’s comfort room in the “senators’ executive lounge”, he would be accompanied by his bodyguard armed with “a long firearm, an assault rifle.”
When asked to verify Santiago’s “tale” made during the hearing, Guingona could only answer with a short laughter.
“I don’t remember any long firearms actually,” he said.
Enrile issued a short statement in reaction, saying the accusations were “wild-eyed charges, baseless assumptions, and false accusations” and that the hearing has turned the proceedings into “a parody of justice.”
Guingona, however, admitted that not even Santiago, who apparently tried to intimidate Napoles, made the latter cringe and be swayed into admitting her supposed misdeeds.
Guingona, however, admitted that not even Santiago, who apparently tried to intimidate Napoles, made the latter cringe and be swayed into admitting her supposed misdeeds.
“Well it was a pitch for her to turn state witness. But unfortunately it did not work. It was a strong pitch too,” he said, referring to Santiago’s prodding to Napoles to consider the idea of turning herself a state witness and make a tell-all confession.
“There were points where she was about to burst with emotions (during Santiago’s interrogation). But then somebody told me It was lunch time and that she should be fed because she is a diabetic, I said it’s because she’s diabetic, I don’t really know,” Guingona said.
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