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Senate minority whip Alan Cayetano delivers historic speech in Senate

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I have been working on this angle since last year but could not get to first base due to lack of documents.

Cayetano-1Suddenly, Senate Minority Floor Leader Alan Peter Cayetano delivered a privilege speech this afternoon precisely on what I was working on. A privilege speech is covered by immunity from any lawsuit, including criminal libel.

Never in the history of the post-Martial Law Senate has a member delivered such a broadside on the Senate institution.

Please take time out to listen. I will explain other angles that I am working on soon.

UPDATE as of 10:26 PM, Jan. 23, 2013:

Enrile’s Chief-of-Staff Gigi Reyes has just resigned. You can read it by clicking on this link.

Damage control?

Second Update as of 10:34 PM, Jan. 23,2013

Commenter @J who writes The Nutbox has just posted this link of a 1998 story from The Chicago Tribune to explain who Enrile’s Chief-of-Staff Gigi Reyes is.  To read, please click on this link.

Third Update as of  11:03 PM, Jan. 23, 2013:

Someone sent me this link about Enrile and Gigi Reyes entitled “Violating Enrile’s erogenous zone of privacy”, circa 1998. It’s from his side. Please click here to read it.

Fourth Update as of 11:30 PM, Jan. 23, 2013

According to @Ryan Chua of ABS-CBN, Enrile did not accept Gigi Reyes’ resignation.

Fifth Update as of 7 AM, Jan. 24, 2013

My thanks @rejtatel for sending me this new Youtube video link.

I’m guessing this might be one of the interviews that so incensed Sen. Alan Cayetano, that he delivered his privilege speech yesterday. What comes to my mind watching this video: an office functionary or a  staff member behaving as if she were a senator.

Meanwhile, the Youtube video I had pointed to regarding Gigi Reyes’ 50th birthday – which was partly shot in the Senate President’s office – has since been made private.

Sixth Update as of 7:22 AM, Jan, 24, 2013

@mark13 also gave two links explaining Atty. Gigi Reyes’ role in the Senate further. You can access the links here and here.

Seventh Update as of 6:33 PM, Jan. 24, 2013

My thanks @William for pointing me to a new link to Gigi Reyes’ video of her 50th birthday. The first one that was provided yesterday no longer works. But the one below does:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9d7mI0ikEQ

As a companion to the video of Senator Cayetano’s speech, please also watch the next video which was made for the 50th birthday of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s chief of staff and spokesperson Gigi Reyes. Notice that portions of the video were shot inside the Senate Presidency’s official office.   My thanks to @Jojo Malig of ABS-CBNNews for pointing to the existence of the video on Twitter.

[NOTE: This video has since been made “private”, but only this one. ] 

 

The video below has been made “private” but only in the personal YouTube account of Gigi Reyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SngYkNk40fo

 

Latest story: Read the text of Cayetano’s privilege speech in

Newbie senator dresses down his Senate chief in a privilege speech

 

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Comments

  1. “… Sen. Panfilo Lacson who said that Congress had to resort to this loose type of liquidation in order to accommodate the flood of people going to their offices seeking financial assistance.

    “Some of them are sick, some of them are asking for scholarships. There are so many of them visiting us every day. We cannot turn them away and more often, we are being fooled because some of these people are just taking turns asking for money,” Lacson said in a radio interview.

    “He said senators could not “possibly track down how the funds we give them are used.”

    Senate fund for oversight bodies doubled

    By Gil C. Cabacungan
    Philippine Daily Inquirer
    1:39 am | Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

    Senate funding for oversight committees in the form of maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE), the unused amounts of which the Commission on Audit (COA) cannot examine, more than doubled to about P450 million since President Aquino took office three years ago.

    The amount, which can be liquidated on a mere certification from a lawmaker, was on top of the more than P1 billion that senators get for regular committees.

    Based on data culled from the Department of Budget and Management website, Senate funds for MOOE surged to P442.415 million in 2012 and to P428 million this year from only P212.398 million in 2010 and P209.898 million in 2011.

    The funds are in addition to the amounts—which declined from P1.338 billion in 2010 to P1.148 billion in 2013—that the Senate sets aside for its 39 regular committees.
    During the same period, the number of oversight committees in the 23-member Senate swelled from 19 in 2010 to 32 in 2012 and 34 in 2013.

    The jump in the number of oversight committees and their MOOE was initiated by the Senate in 2011, the year Malacañang and Congress attacked the judiciary for abusing its own Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF). Magistrates can realign the fund, meant to fill jobs in the judiciary, for other purposes such as bonuses.

    By contrast, the 285-member House of Representatives saw its MOOE for special projects increase by 13 percent from P259.342 million in 2010 to P294.342 million in 2013.
    The number of oversight committees in the House expanded from 24 to 29 during the period.

    Mere certification

    To prepare for the increase in the Senate’s MOOE in 2012, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. were authorized to use mere certifications in liquidating the unused MOOE from their regular and oversight committees.

    This was confirmed by Sen. Panfilo Lacson who said that Congress had to resort to this loose type of liquidation in order to accommodate the flood of people going to their offices seeking financial assistance.

    “Some of them are sick, some of them are asking for scholarships. There are so many of them visiting us every day. We cannot turn them away and more often, we are being fooled because some of these people are just taking turns asking for money,” Lacson said in a radio interview.

    He said senators could not “possibly track down how the funds we give them are used.”

    Lacson suggested that Congress come out with a concurrent resolution to produce more concrete documents for liquidating MOOE.

    He acknowledged the complaints from several senators over the disparity in the budgets for the oversight committees. “Some receive as high as P25 million while some get only P3 million,” he said.

    Lacson said this was the reason Sen. Franklin Drilon was assigned to rationalize the budget of the oversight committees.
    Personal appeals

    “There were personal appeals from some senators not to touch their budget in the oversight committees. But I don’t know what was the final decision of the Senate President, who always wanted to give priority to Senate employees in the distribution of excess funds, especially those with small salaries like janitors,” Lacson said.

    Drilon did not respond to the Inquirer’s calls.
    Lacson said some oversight committees had bigger budgets than regular committees although he pointed out that some budgets for oversight committees were mandated under the law.

    “I’ve never looked into the details of how the funds of the oversight committees have been used because we leave it to the committee secretary. I only get to taste the coffee and soft drinks during hearings,” he said.

    Lacson said the MOOE was different from the P200 million in annual pork barrel for each senator because all government agencies were entitled to the MOOE whose use was dependent on the budget officer.

    A senator’s MOOE can be further augmented by the savings from the nonutilization of funds for personal services and capital outlays, according to Lacson.

    Abad declines comment

    Budget Secretary Florencio Abad Jr. declined to comment on the finances of the Senate, saying it was a separate branch of government.

    He said the Senate was in a better position to explain why it needed additional oversight committees.
    “As to expenditures made on those committees, it is COA which looks into the legal basis and reasonability of allocations,” Abad said.

    A senator, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said all senators, including the minority, were aware of the expansion in the number of committees and MOOE since 2012.
    Based on the data from the Senate website, the four senators who have complained about the unequal cash “gifts” and “bonuses” that Enrile gave to senators before Christmas were more than well-represented in the oversight committees

    Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago is chair of two committees and a member of three others; Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano is chair of two committees and a member in 12 others; Sen. Pia Cayetano is a chair of one committee and a member in 16 others; and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is chair of one committee and a member in six others.

    Senators Francis Escudero, Gregorio Honsasan and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. each chair three committees.

    SOURCE: newsinfo inquirer net/349337/senate-fund-for-oversight-bodies-doubled

  2. Is this “relationship” a reality crime, a personal crime, a cybercrime, a political crime — and please inform how many degrees is the penalty over the penal code.