1. Statement and Public Apology of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile's Chief-of-
Staff Jessica “Gigi” Reyes
I profusely apologize to the Hon. Senator and Minority Floor Leader, Alan Peter
Cayetano for my disrespectful and offensive statements and overbearing tenor as I
was interviewed on DZMM Teleradyo last Monday, January 21, 2013. In particular:
1. I committed an act of disrespect in referring to His Honor as “Alan” and not
addressing him properly as an elected Senator of the Republic. I do not mean
this as an excuse for such unethical behaviour, but perhaps due to my long
years of working in the Senate, almost all of 25 years, some of the younger
Senators and I have come to call each other on a first-name basis. But that is
when we are in private conversations. Therefore, it was highly inappropriate for
me to refer to Senator Cayetano simply as “Alan”.
2. More importantly, I committed a serious ethical breach in making the remark:
“They are hypocrites”. I am sorry that I was driven by my emotional state, as the
Senate President and I viewed and listened while Ms. Karen Davila and Mr. Vic
Lima were obviously aghast and scandalized at Sen. Cayetano’s allegations,
apparently believing them to be the whole truth about the disposition of the
Senate’s budget.
3. While I had the permission of the Senate President to contact Ms. Karen Davila
and to refute the allegations of Sen. Cayetano live and on the air, when Ms.
Davila asked me for my last words and I said “They are hypocrites”, such was
MY OWN spontaneous reaction and it was not sanctioned by the Senate
President. Actually, I was reacting to Sen. Alan Cayetano because as I stated,
he had received similar checks from the Office of the Senate President in
previous Christmases, and at that time, only Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago had
returned the equivalent amount of P250,000. I therefore found his remarks that
these were questionable and irregular very puzzling and yes, hypocritical. I
really ought to have kept that feeling to myself.
Last Wednesday, January 23, 2013, I tendered my irrevocable resignation to the
Senate President effective on even date. By its nature, the same need not await the
Senate President’s acceptance and I have given instructions for my own copy to be
filed with the Senate Secretary, who I expect will immediately turn over the same to the
Senate’s Human Resource and Management Service.
My resignation is but proper because of the rightful indignation of Sen. Cayetano and
perhaps some of the other Senators. I had no right to speak ill of any Senator while I
served in the Senate. To be sure, I never once thought of myself as their EQUAL. I
was also expected to do as I preached to the other staff members of the Senate- that
we must accord all of the Senators the respect due them, regardless of
disagreements, personal or otherwise, among our principals. While I have practiced
and kept this in mind all these years, last Monday, I was carried away by my emotions
and for that, I sincerely apologize to Senator Alan Cayetano, to the rest of the

2. Senators, and the listening public whose sensibilities I had offended.
I am now being derisively called “the 25th Senator”- that used to be just a joke from
some Senators every time they would kindly offer me to take a seat in meetings and
caucuses. I never harboured any illusion or delusion that I am or will ever be their
equal. I have tried to serve all of them and accommodate their needs and requests to
the best of my ability and within the authority given by the Senate President, and
ALWAYS in consultation with the Senate Secretariat officials.
I wish to disabuse the minds of the public that I enjoy any special privilege as the
Senate President’s Chief of Staff. I only go to the Senators Lounge when and as
needed by the Senate President, or when I am called by the other Senators. I do not
butt in when the Senators are discussing in caucus, and I am not the only non-Senator
present at these caucuses. I speak only when I am asked to give information or my
inputs, and always respectfully.
It is also a total lie that nobody can go directly to the Senate President unless they
pass through me or my brother as Sen. Cayetano alleges. The Senate President and I
have our hands full with people to meet, tasks to attend to, and my desk overflows
with administrative work. I don’t remember when I ever kept Sen. Cayetano’s Chief of
Staff waiting and unattended to. My brother’s job is actually to attend to the numerous
requests for medical assistance. Yet many people, especially Sen. Alan Cayetano’s
and Sen. Trillanes’ own Chiefs of Staff would rather approach him to relay requests
addressed to me or the Senate President. That is much added burden to him. In that
respect, being my brother has become more of a curse, and definitely not a perk to
him.
I have had the honor and privilege of the personal friendship of some Senators and
Congressmen in the course of my long years in the Senate, and to closely and freely
interact with them. That, I consider, is one of the few rewards of an otherwise
punishing and oftentimes thankless job. Yet, I never abused their kindness and
friendship. I was therefore surprised when I heard Sen. Alan Cayetano say that I can
go in and out of their offices. I have gone into Sen. Cayetano’s office only once, and
that was to ask him for a chance for my niece who is an SK member in Taguig to pay a
courtesy call to him. When Senators say they want to see me, I always offer to be the
one to go to their offices. I never go to their offices uninvited. If I need to discuss any
matter with any one of them, I ask first for permission to see them.
If Senator Alan Cayetano or the other Senators resent my presence at the lounge or at
their caucuses, I am sorry for that as well. The Senate President, as he explained
before, is suffering from both vision and hearing impairment. I, together with my
legislative staff and his aide, assist him just to make things a bit easy for our boss who
is almost 89 years old with age-related macular degeneration and high blood pressure
problems. Most of the time, the Senators themselves call me to go down when they
see that the Senate President is not feeling well.

3. As to my authority to sign checks, two of us in the staff were authorized in writing by
the Senate President to sign the voluminous checks, payrolls and other administrative
documents coming from the Secretariat on his behalf. This is not an unusual practice
even with the past Senate Presidents. It is purely administrative, and I never signed
any Senate check without first the signatures of the heads of the offices involved in the
process of disbursement AND without the signature of the Senate Secretary.
I and my Deputy Chief of Staff, Atty. Carole Quirolgico, were also the designated
signatories of the Land Bank checking account of the “Office of Senator Juan Ponce
Enrile”. This is different from the Senate checks drawn against the Senate’s Land
Bank account. Hence, I was the one who signed the checks for P250,000 each which
were ordered by the Senate President to be prepared and given to all the Senators.
This is also the same practice adopted by other Senators who have chosen to
designate their check signatories for their offices’ accounts.
My resignation is also due to an honest difference of opinion with my principal, the
Hon. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, on how to respond to all these mad and
baseless accusations of public fund misuse.
I had prepared and submitted to him at noon of January 23, 2013 a detailed response
to the allegation that more than P500M of the Senate’s budget is under the sole
disposition of the Senate President and the insinuation that the Senate President is
misusing or benefiting from such funds. I asked him to consider delivering it as a
privilege speech after Sen. Cayetano’s speech.
The said amount of almost P600M actually represents the MOOE of the entire Senate
Secretariat, and contrary to the allegations, all expenses charged to that account are
covered by supporting documents and vouchers which are available for all in the
Senate to see. In fact, these expenses pass through several departments before
reaching the Secretary of the Senate who then submits them to the OSP for
approval/signature. Senator Cayetano claimed that only the Office of the Senate
President has access to these vouchers. That is not true.
The Senate President did not agree to deliver the speech, understandably concerned
that with the prevailing howl over the media, the Senate and his colleagues may be
unduly placed in a bad light- in particular, with respect to the budgets of the oversight
committees that are locally funded by the Senate.
The draft speech also contained details of the delicate balancing act we have had to
do just to accommodate many of the Senator’s requests- extra office space, hiring or
promotion of their recommendees, detail of Senate personnel, and requests for
additional travel funds. But the Senate President did not want to embarrass his
colleagues. It also recalls the history of the current system of liquidation of the MOOE
of the Senator’s offices and the Senate President’s own position, as relayed to the
COA Chair, that he has no objection to reverting to the old system if the Senators and
the House of Representatives agreed. Also, he had not yet consulted and gotten the

4. consensus of his colleagues on the matter.
As it happened, Senator Alan Cayetano went on the attack, mainly aimed against me
and my role as Chief of Staff, and insinuating something else on the side. As I watched
the events on the floor from my monitor in the office, I saw that the Senate President
was visibly angered- angered enough to fall into the trap of drawing him to the gutter,
as he spontaneously drew out the document regarding the unpaid loan of the late
Senator Rene Cayetano. That was very unfortunate indeed. But I also understand the
depth of the Senate President’s personal hurt involving Senators Alan and Pia
Cayetano which the public will never know and understand I guess. It is quite deeply
rooted, and by the way, it is not related to the RH bill itself, much less, to local politics
in Taguig.
THE DRAFT SPEECH I PREPARED ALSO CONTAINED A STATEMENT TOWARDS
THE END THAT HE WAS RESIGNING IRREVOCABLY AS SENATE PRESIDENT,
SOMETHING THAT HE HAD BEEN CONTEMPLATING SINCE MONDAY WHEN HIS
MOTION TO DECLARE THE POSITION OF SENATE PRESIDENT VACANT WAS
DEFEATED. Perhaps, if Senator Cayetano stuck to the real issue, Sen. Trillanes
would be really happy by now as he would not have to sweat it out just to unseat the
Senate President.
In my humble opinion, letting the public know the whole truth about the Senate’s and
the Senators’ budgets would have more clearly shed light on the issues being heaped
solely against the Senate President, and it would have settled the issue of his
leadership once and for all. But the Senate President believed that to do so would be
falling into the trap laid by his detractors. I thought otherwise.
I arrived at this purely personal conviction to convince the Senate President to resign
irrevocably for several reasons:
1. It saddened me that only a handful of the Senators in the majority spoke up
about the issue which, as things unravelled, already went beyond the unequal
distribution of the additional MOOE. Not only was the exercise of discretion by
the Senate President in question- it was the budget of the Senate itself. I had
expected the other Senators not so much to defend their own leader, but to
clarify, explain and defend their own honor and the honor of the Senate. The
systematic disinformation and the malevolent attacks raged on, fuelled by Sen.
Trillanes’ tireless pronouncements that a change in leadership was in the offing.
I did not know what to make of the conspicuous silence of the other members of
the majority. I grant that some of them just did not want to be embroiled in the
fray.
2. I had a serious disagreement last Tuesday night with the Senate Secretary, Atty.
Emma Lirio Reyes, over her refusal to state the name of the Minority Leader as
the one calling for a private audit of the Senate’s funds (which was actually the
MOOE of the Secretariat) in the press statement that the Senate President

5. asked her to prepare detailing the Senate’s budget so that the public can be
enlightened. She explained that she did not want it to appear that she was
defending the Senate President. What? Even the Senate Secretary who serves
under and at the pleasure of the Senate President was hesitant to set the record
straight and confront the issue, fearing that she would be perceived as
defending the Senate President?
3. Sen. Trillanes the next morning (Wednesday) on ANC stated that the Senate
President might use the funds of the Senate for the campaign of the UNA;
hence he should be removed right away.
As all these percolated in my mind, I thought that there was no point for the
Senate President to continue to stick his neck out defending himself and his
colleagues while the others except for very few would rather just watch. We had
not been deluded by the so-called “vote of confidence” he gained when his
motion was voted down, with 16 Senators in attendance. It was not a moro-
moro. He was ready to step down, and so he manifested that he will reiterate his
motion when the others, especially all his detractors were present.
I asked myself: Why are the others silent when the Senate President is being accused
of being a thief? Is the Senate President supposed to be left alone to explain how the
Senate’s budget is spent? Does he have control over the expenditures of the Senators
and their committees? Was it he who invented the controversial “one page
certification” system of liquidating the Senators’ budgets for MOOE?
As a mere subordinate, I always bow to the wisdom of my principal, and no matter
how some people tend to overrate me, my role and my supposed “influence”, I cannot
substitute, nor can I impose, my analysis and opinion over his own. They give me too
much credit and they seem to think the Senate President is a fool. They are grossly
mistaken.
In matters such as this which involves many complex considerations, and where no
less than his honor and integrity are at stake, I know that he alone can and will make
the better judgment.
It may be wishful thinking, but I still wish that the Senate President’s family and my
own family could be spared from the hurt brought about by malicious insinuations and
imputations regarding my personal relationship with the Senate President- just to whet
and feed the public’s appetite for gossip, to gain political points, and to inflict more pain
as if the pain and ugliness we have all witnessed and suffered were not already
enough. My family, especially my mother and my children, continue to suffer in silence
the horrible and distasteful comments they read and hear about me in the media and
all over the internet.
I believe what the public really hungers for is the truth about the officials they elected
and how their money is spent or wasted. The people now believe that the Senate

6. stinks…It is sad but I so agree. It is time to look for where the stink is actually coming
from.
ATTY. JESSICA GONZALES REYES
January 25, 2013