Enrile wants gov't to declassify NISA reports

MANILA, Philippines - Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile challenged the Aquino administration yesterday to declassify reports gathered by the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) during the martial law regime.

Enrile, a former defense secretary, said he has no problem about the move of the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to make classified documents available to the public.

“I am fine with that so that the public may know what really happened during martial law. I also have many files, year by year. We did not hide anything during martial law,” Enrile said in an interview over dzBB radio.

Enrile said NISA documents would unravel more truths about the martial law regime. 

“If they opened the documents of the military, why didn’t they open the records of NISA? I’m also interested because it was outside my jurisdiction,” he said.

He added he himself is curious to see the details of the NISA intelligence reports since he was also placed under surveillance by then NISA chief Gen. Fabian Ver.

Enrile said the administration could even look into the operations of the ”Binondo Central Bank” and the directive of former President Ferdinand Marcos to then trade minister Roberto Ongpin to hoard dollars and have them sent to an account in a Hong Kong bank at the height of the dictatorship.

“That’s what they used to support the economy of the Philippines. Until now, they have not liquidated the project. Bobby Ongpin was the one in charge, with Gen. Ver,” Enrile saod.

Ongpin, now embroiled in a controversy being probed by the Senate, would know how to account the Binondo bank fiasco, he said.

Enrile issued the statement after the CHR took custody of about 70 martial law documents from the DND in celebration of the International Human Rights Day.