Transcript of Ambush Interview of Senate President Enrile

ON VILLAR ETHICS CASE

Q: Sir, hindi naman sila natakot sa warning na paiimbestigahan ninyo yung magle-leak sa committee report sa C-5?

SP Hindi ko naman sinabi na paiimbistigahan ko sila. I just requested, that they must handle the report with utmost confidentiality. Now I do not know who leaked it. I cannot ask the media where they got a copy of the report because they can invoke secrecy of their source. I leave it to the conscience of the members of the Committee of the Whole to exercise their caution to protect the Institution and protect the integrity of the work of the Senate as well as the right of the respondent because while we have rendered a decision, that decision cannot take effect unless it carries the correct number of signatures.

Q: Sir, how many have signed the report so far?

SP I do not know really. Honestly, I have not followed who signed, and who did not sign.

Q: Sir, without the majority signature, censure ba can be imposed on Villar?

SP I do not know whether the penalty is censure or suspension.

Q: (unclear)

SP: There's no need to do that. I leave it to the conscience of the people who did it. I read the story and I sensed that a member of a political party leaked it.

Q: Do you have a suspect as to what political party?

SP Well, the newspapers, if you read it, will tell you the political party.

Q: (unclear)

SP I will neither confirm or deny. Just leave it that way.

Q: Ano ba ang balak Sir, will you take it up on the floor?

SP When we get the correct number of signatures. Until we go on break. If we cannot get it until that time, we will file it into the archives of the Senate.

Q: Sir, this afternoon, hindi pa kasama sa agenda?

SP Hindi pa.

ON THE JBC

Q: Sir, regarding JBC. The JBC decided unanimously to open the nomination?

SP You know, as far as I am concerned, I maintain my position that the JBC really has no jurisdiction over the appointment of a Justice of the Supreme Court. Why do I say this? The JBC, in case the Chief Justice, Chief Justice Puno retires on the 17th of May, the next president of the country cannot appoint the Chief Justice at all during his term, if his position is that the JBC must touch upon the appointment of a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. That is one scenario. Now, let us take the case of Chief Justice Davide. He was impeached. If he was impeached, there was no ex-officio chairman of the JBC. What would the President then would have done? They could not appoint a Chief Justice? Then you paralyze the entire Supreme Court, paralyze the judicial system of the country. It's just like chicken and the egg, which comes first? The JBC must recommend, but the JBC cannot function because there is no chairman, because the chairman is impeached. The chairman is Chief Justice and he is ex-officio, then the framers of the Constitution forgot to address that contingency that if the Chief Justice dies in office, or all of a sudden he was impeached or he resigns, then the JBC will not function. So necessarily the President, the sitting President, must act to protect the national interest. And we can bypass the JBC. Correct? That's my position.