MANILA - Senator Juan Ponce Enrile dismissed as "suspicions" the revelations of his wife, Cristina Ponce Enrile, about his alleged affair with his former chief of staff, Gigi Reyes.
"Suspicions of a wife, suspicions," Enrile told reporters when asked to react to his wife’s interview with Winnie Monsod.
He said that he did not know beforehand that Cristina would be granting an interview.
"Hindi ko alam e, na magpa-interview," he said.
Cristina Ponce Enrile earlier confirmed in an interview with "Mareng Winnie" that her husband had an affair with Reyes.
She said the affair was why she packed her bags and flew to the United States several years ago.
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| Juan Ponce Enrile and Gigi Reyes. |
“He had many girls before Gigi but they didn’t last too long. With Gigi, it lasted long,” Cristina said during the program hosted by Monsod. The first part of the interview was aired Monday.
What got to her, according to Cristina, was that even though she found out about the affair in 1998, someone told her the relationship involved “more years” than she knew about.
They have not separated, she said, adding they merely lived in different houses in the same compound. He had many books and their conjugal home was not enough for her.
“It’s useless for me to be always tense in my house. I was always having that anxiety,” she said.
Resurfaced
Reports of the purported love affair between Enrile and Reyes resurfaced in recent years after the current Senate minority leader published his life story and was criticized by his colleagues in the Senate over alleged unequal distribution of Christmas bonuses in 2012.
Enrile denied the affair while Cristina declared in a previous interview with The STAR that she was standing by her man.
Reyes has since resigned as Enrile’s chief of staff.
At the height of the pork barrel controversy, Reyes became one of the respondents in a plunder complaint filed before the Office of the Ombudsman.
No direct testimony has linked Enrile to the pork barrel scam so far, since witnesses Ruby Tuason, Dennis Cunanan and Benhur Luy mentioned dealing only with Reyes.
Cristina said she tried to divorce her husband when she found out about the affair with Reyes 15 years ago.
She admitted she was left with no choice when Enrile rejected the divorce papers. She quoted him as saying, “Over my dead body will I give you a divorce.” She returned to Manila.
