The old martial law architect and enforcer, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, (JPE) exchanged a nasty word-war with a young Minority Whip, Senator Alan P. Cayetano over issues of unaudited “pork barrels” and MOOE, money for office maintenance and staff. It is frustrating to know how JPE disposes of the serious accusation of the young Senator that this pork was given as liberal ‘bonuses’ to favored senators, but parsimoniously distributed to senators that are non-allies — with one liner, “your father owes me.”
But this is not all, Senator Cayetano accuses also JPE of hypocrisy and gutter politics but JPE managed to counter only by flaunting the alleged P27 million indebtedness of the old Cayetano from his law office and the unpaid lumber used in the construction of the Cayetano house, totally skirting the larger issues of favoritism in the dispersal of the largesse of the Senate and the accounting of this multi-million political booty which the Senators normally dispense without expense report submitted to the people.
The old politician from the Marcos era would actually tell the young Senator to just shut up and not to question the manner by which he runs the Senate after all, he “owns” the Cayetanos lock, stock and barrel, and never mind if the greater interest of the nation is at stake.
Duh!!…. Those are irrelevant…. It is reflective of his dancing like an invalid senior in his Senate chair while the serious business of the nation is being pushed at the backburner… Typical patronage politics line that inasmuch as your family owes me, we can discuss the business of the nation at the backdoor.
How cheap!
And by the way, this is the same JPE who months back wrote in his Memoir about his contempt over Mrs. Imelda Marcos’s obliging Gen. Fidel Ramos and some army generals to wear grass skirts to dance the Hawaiian hula in a Malacanang Party at the peak of the dictator’s immoral rule. He claimed that this incident nurtures his dislike of Imelda. However, JPE was never upset of his ridiculous performance in this video just to please the overture of an overeager birthday celebrant, rumored to be his “fling.”
As one observer noted: the “Senate which used to be an emporium of elder statesmen is now full of TV personalities, movie stars, (sometimes basketball stars), coup plotters, and the remnants of the Marcos martial law machine.”
This video clip shows how our government functionaries can be cheap and bizarre in their merrymaking — and JPE’s refusal to confront squarely the issues raised against his leadership in the Senate, just like his demeanor in the video, is disgusting!
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