Ira Pedrasa of ABS-CBNNews.com reports that Senator Juan Ponce Enrile announced his "irrevocable resignation" as Senate president on Wednesday, the last session day of the 15th Congress.
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According to the report, Enrile said in a speech given at the Senate that he does "not need nor intend to use the powers, perquisites and trappings of the Senate Presidency just to cling to it or to secure this position for myself when the 16th Congress opens in July." The 89-year old senator said he "suffered the anger of the public" when news erupted in December last year that he gave P1.6 million as additional maintenance and other operating expenditures (MOOE) to each of his 18 colleagues from the Senate's savings in 2012. "The media branded all that I had authorized for release to the Senators’ offices last December as my personal 'CASH GIFTS' no matter how hard I tried to explain the nature of these disbursements from the Senate’s coffers and my own office’s savings," he said.
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The outgoing Senate President also lamented that his son, Jack Enrile, "bore the brunt" of the criticism he received in the aftermath of the MOOE controversy because it happened at the start of the campaign season. The younger Enrile lost in his bid to become a senator, ending up at the 15th spot in the recent polls.
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