Senators scared of the wrong guy

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile spoke very eloquently at the March 29 Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the money-laundering scandal—in defense of the depositor’s absolute right to confidentiality and secrecy of his bank accounts. We wondered if he was speaking on behalf of the Filipino people or on behalf of those accused of plunder with hidden bank accounts!

It may be recalled that Enrile is charged with pocketing more than P170 million from his “pork barrel” allotment, money that should have been spent for infrastructure projects of the government. The Sandiganbayan found strong evidence of plunder and denied him bail. But thanks to a very sympathetic Supreme Court, Enrile was handed the right to bail on a silver platter! Is it farfetched to imagine that he may himself have bank accounts that need to be protected from prying eyes? Bank records would show where all that money came from.

And thanks, too, to a docile Senate that willingly accommodated Enrile and backed off from nearly citing the RCBC (Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.) executives for contempt due to their adamant refusal to allow inquiry into bank records and accounts owned by “fictitious” persons who were believed to be part of the syndicate that stole the money from the Bangladesh Central Bank, we may never see the Senate investigation get to the bottom of this yet another shameful besmirching of our country’s reputation.

Why were our senators so “deferential” to Enrile? Some of them are running for reelection. The people should let them know they got scared of the wrong guy!

—MARIUS V. CANONOY, canomarivil@gmail.com