Ex-Minister to Sue Over Senate Seat : Aquino Out to Destroy Her Foes, Enrile Says

MANILA —  Philippine opposition leader Juan Ponce Enrile charged Tuesday that President Corazon Aquino’s government is using the nation’s court system and its election commission to destroy all opponents of the regime, which Enrile likened to the dictatorship that he helped overthrow 17 months ago.

Enrile, after two months of self-imposed silence, sounded angry and defiant at a press conference as he charged that Aquino’s government is cheating him out of a seat in the national Senate. He also said that government charges that he committed fraud under the regime of Ferdinand E. Marcos are part of a conspiracy “intended to silence the voice of the opposition in this country.”

“You cannot have a democracy if you do not have a strong opposition in the halls of your parliament,” Enrile said.

Last weekend, the National Election Commission ordered a recount of the vote in 6,000 precincts in the May 11 election for the 24th and last unoccupied Senate seat. If he is declared the winner, Enrile would be one of two opposition members in the Senate.

“You will have, in effect, a one-party society,” he said. “This is the same kind of situation that they (Aquino and her supporters) criticized under Marcos. And it is happening again.”

Enrile, who served in Marcos’ Cabinet for 17 years, led the February, 1986, military revolt that overthrew Marcos. When Marcos fled to Hawaii, Enrile and other coup leaders handed the reins of power to Aquino and her political supporters, and Aquino made Enrile her defense minister. Last November, however, she fired him amid rumors that his military supporters were plotting a coup against her.

Regrets His Part

Asked on Tuesday whether he regrets having been a part of Aquino’s government, Enrile said, “As it is, yes. I regret it. I thought this would be a different kind of government. . . . Obviously our expection for a just, fair government has not materialized.”

Specifically, Enrile announced that he is suing the government for allegedly cheating him out of victory in the election, in which he is credited with having received 8 million votes. He claims that he received twice that many.

In the more than two months since the voting, the election commission has failed to proclaim winners of that final Senate seat and in 11 of the House contests. On Saturday, the commission declared Santanina Rasul, a friend of the president’s, the winner of the 23rd Senate seat, even though it had not finished tallying the votes. Enrile’s rival for the 24th seat is Augusto Sanchez, Aquino’s former labor minister and a bitter foe.

The new Senate and House of Representatives convened Monday in a ceremony that Aquino declared ended an era of dictatorship and gave “the nation the fully ripened fruit of freedom.” Enrile, however, claimed that it merely marked the beginning of a new dictatorship.

“Evidently, they just don’t want to proclaim Juan Ponce Enrile,” he said, calling the vote-counting process “a charade,” “deceitful” and “sordid.”

“They want to ease out Juan Ponce Enrile,” he said.

“And where in the world can you find a country claiming to be a democracy where you have an election on May 11 and here it is July 28 and you still don’t know the results.”

Enrile also criticized the recent spate of lawsuits charging former members of Marcos’ government with stealing as much as $700 billion while in office.

The government’s filing last week of a civil suit against Enrile--one of 19 lawsuits filed by the commission tracking down the alleged hidden wealth of Marcos and his associates--charged that Enrile, too, took part in the Marcos regime’s plunder of the national treasury by reaping huge, illegal profits from a telecommunications company that he partly owned.

Enrile, sounding like a lawyer arguing in his own defense, flatly denied the charges on Tuesday.

“I have not done any wrongdoing,” he said. “I was a practicing lawyer (during the 20-year Marcos regime). I knew what I was doing, and Mr. Marcos would never involve me in any of his financial dealings.”

The 63-year-old politician added, “I have a suspicion these are all intended to silence the voice of the opposition. . . . But, feeble as it may be, the voice of the opposition in this country will not be silenced. We will keep on fighting.”

Enrile did not hint, as he has in the past, that his followers within the armed forces would turn on Aquino, vowing instead that he will use “the legal processes” to remedy what he sees as injustices.

Opponent Held

Nevertheless, the government still perceives itself as threatened by Marcos supporters, in particular those in the armed forces. On Tuesday, Aquino ordered tight, around-the-clock security guards placed on Col. Rolando Abadilla, the former bodyguard of Marcos’ eldest son and one-time head of a notorious military intelligence unit that allegedly tortured and killed hundreds of Marcos’ opponents.

Abadilla, who helped lead the takeover of the Manila Hotel in a coup attempt a year ago and is a suspect in three subsequent destabilization moves against Aquino, was arrested in his Quezon City trucking company office Monday afternoon as Aquino was delivering her state of the nation address to the joint session of Congress.

Abadilla was among the group of disgruntled military officers who supported Enrile, but the former defense minister said Tuesday, “I have not had contact with anybody in the military” since leaving the Defense Ministry.

Enrile refused to comment, however, on whether he would do what he did 17 months ago--in particular, handing power over to Aquino--if he had it to do over again.

“It’s too late to speculate now,” he said.