SPEAKER Jose de Venecia said the Northrail project that Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, an administration ally, is now suddenly negatively linking him to by insinuating he tried to ask the senator to downplay his attacks on the project was approved by both governments of the Philippines and China.

“If Senator Juan Ponce Enrile wants to make a complaint he should address it to President Arroyo and the Chinese government,” De Venecia said.

He said if he had any interest at all in the project, as Enrile appears now to bring up, it was only in terms of wanting to make available to his fellow northern Luzon travelers a cheaper but modern means of commuting to and from Metro Manila and the South.

The North Rail contract was awarded to the China National Machinery and Equipment Corp. using a loan secured from China’s Export-Import Bank (Eximbank). The Senate conducted an inquiry back in 2005 into the project after a privilege speech delivered by Enrile. It is not clear till today what the senate found out from the inquiry. The contract involves rehabilitation of a 32-km railway, which will run from Caloocan City to Malolos, Bulacan.

De Venecia, in earlier announcements to his provincemates in Pangasinan said the overall plan was for the rail project to eventually extend from Bulacan to Pangasinan.

“Puro kalokohan ang ganong salita at hindi po tama iyan (Those are silly talk and inappropriate),” De Venecia told a recent television interview, referring to Enrile’s sudden revival of the issue.

Enrile on Thursday in a television news report, said the House leader allegedly asked him “not to rock the boat” after the senator denounced the “overpriced” $500 million NorthRail project in a privilege speech two years ago.

“I have an impression he had an interest on the project,” Enrile said.

De Venecia, reacting to Enrile’s move amid a simmering rift between him and President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo, said he did not negotiate for the project, stressing that job was vested in the cabinet officials of President Arroyo.

“Maling-mail si Senator Juan Ponce Enrile (The senator is dead wrong). He should act as a statesman instead of a fish monger in the market,” the House Speaker added.

De Venecia said he is bothered that Enrile’s attacks came amid the National Broadband Network project uproar that was fueled principally by the exposé of his son Joey.

The young De Venecia linked the presidential couple to the alleged overpriced, bribery tainted project that was won by China’s Zhong Xiao Telecommunication Equipment Corp. The project was scrapped last month due to the raging controversy.

In the past two months, presidential allies in both the House and the Senate have taken turns bringing up news of alleged “sins” of the House Speaker to the media even after Malacanang appears to have lately forged a truce with de Venecia thru efforts of former President Fidel V. Ramos.