Enrile: “I’ve already packed my things to bring to Camp Crame.”

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile. Photo by Lilem Uy / PCIJ

MANILA, Philippines – Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce-Enrile says his bags are packed, and he’s ready to go. Not on board a jet plane, as the famous lyrics would have it, but to jail.

When queried by reporters on Monday as to whether he would resist arrest, Enrile said: “Why should I resist? I am a lawyer; I know the process, why should I resist? I have no reason to resist.”

“I’ve been prepared since several days ago. I’ve already packed up my things to bring it to Camp Crame if that’s where we are going to be confined,” he said.

He made these statements in response to questions about the looming issuance of a warrant of arrest against him and other personalities charged with plunder at the Sandiganbayan.

The Senator, who is further along in years, added that he is not ready to go to jail, but also to die there.

When informed of co-accused Senators Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.’s appeal to spare him from arrest, Enrile replied: “I thank them for that but I’m prepared. Even if I’ll die in my cell, it’s okay. At my age, I got through life already.”
Enrile added that whether the arrest would be done inside or outside the Senate, he would not mind either scenario.

“I was served the warrant here in the senate in 1990. It was here in the Senate that I was arrested. The second time I was arrested in 2001 was at my house…” he pointed out.
However, he also said that he and his lawyers would exhaust all available means so he could defend himself.

He pointed out that the filing of cases in court would give him and his former chief of staff, Atty. Jessica “Gigi” Reyes,” a chance to prove their innocence.

“…And we’ll have a chance to show that Mrs Reyes, my staff did not receive any money for me or for her and so it’s good that we are given the opportunity to use the proper forum to discharge all of these speculation, all of these charges, all of these things that are being thrown at us,” Enrile explained.