Tiff between Enrile, Miriam on Senate funds getting hotter

On Thursday, Enrile disputed Santiago allegations that the P71.7 million additional budgets for the Office of the Senate President mentioned in her press released last Wednesday were his personal income as former Senate President.

Enrile said the said funds were allotted as additional budget for the Office of the Senate President for the operational requirements and such did not serve as additional income of then Senate President Enrile nor were used for his personal purposes, contrary to what the statement of Santiago appears to mean.

“As we already clarified earlier this year when the controversy about the expenditure of our office arose, the budget requirements and expenditures of the Senate President cannot be simply compared to that of the other Senators, and to simply say that he received P71.7  million ‘just by being (an) officer (s) of the Senate’ is most unfair,” Enrile said.

Enrile, however, admitted the revelation made by Santiago that the amount of P71.78 million were indeed released for the Office of the Senate President from January to December 2011 as reported by the Commission on Audit.

“We wish to emphasize that by the nature and functions of his office as head of the chamber both as its political and administrative head, it is reasonable to expect that the Office of the Senate President would require the biggest budgetary allocation compared to the other members and officers of the Senate,” Enrile said.

Enrile explained that apart from his legislative work as Senate President, the office also provided funds to address special requirements and contingencies of the offices under the Secretariat and the committees of the Senate.

“Sometimes, we also augmented the foreign travel funds of Senators and Secretariat officials and employees who went on official travel. In reality, the funds of the Office of the Senate President were also made available to other offices. Apart from this, the OSP also had to address the needs of a much larger number of constituents, socio-civic organizations and indigents requesting for financial assistance,” Enrile said.