Enrile willing to face charges over Senate allowances

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Thursday said he is willing to face any charges if he violated any law by approving supposedly excessive allowances for Senate executives. "If they want to raise this issue in the court, if I have committed any crime in approving it, I'm open to be charged," Enrile said during a weekly forum at the Senate. He issued the statement after the Commission on Audit (COA) reported that some Senate executives have been receiving allowances between P33,000 to P200,000 every month. Among them were regular Senate personnel and employees under the Senate secretariat. Enrile had earlier defended the move, saying he just adjusted the allowances of the chamber's employees to match their counterparts at the House of Representatives when he first assumed the Senate presidency in 2008. "Why is the House not subjected to this kind of publicity? We are transparent here, they know that," he lamented during the forum. He also stood by the amount of allowances being received by the executives, whom he said deserve the pay they get. "My God, the country does not know that many executives in the Senate are working up to 12 midnight," he said. "They do not receive overtime (pay). They (also) work on Sundays," he added. Enrile likewise said the Senate secretariat has already answered the COA's report "point by point." "We are not irresponsible people. When we do something, we study it very carefully," he said. Senate secretary Emma Lirio-Reyes had also said that they were always transparent with their "affairs." "The salaries and allowances of Senate officials and employees were never a secret and our compensation records have always been open to public scrutiny," she said in a statement issued last week. She added that the grant of the allowances was based on their desire to attract "the best and the brightest" with "attractive but reasonable" benefits in accordance with existing laws. Enrile, meanwhile, assured the public that they will work double time to ratify the national budget for 2011. "I will require everyone to be here and to work on the budget day and night for us to pass it on time without waiting for next year. I will stay here and work, I expect everybody to do the same," he said. — RSJ, GMANews.TV