ENRILE DECLARES WAR VS VILLAR / PLOT TO UNSEAT ENRILE FIZZLES OUT
MANILA, JANUARY 21, 2010 (STAR) By Aurea Calica - Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has declared war on Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. whom he suspected of plotting his ouster in yet another twist in the C-5 road controversy.Enrile said he might seek a Senate reorganization despite having only six remaining session days, citing support by former allies for Villar’s ouster move against him.
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, a member of the majority under Enrile and who was part of the ouster move, confirmed there was such a plot from the Nacionalista Party.
“It is a work in progress. I cannot tell a lie: Yes,” Santiago told reporters when asked if the plan to unseat Enrile was true. Villar is NP’s standard-bearer in the May elections.
This was contrary to the denials of Villar himself, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Sen. Edgardo Angara.
“It’s not true. There is no reason for Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to be threatened. We already have a capable, decisive leader in the person of Senator Enrile,” Angara said. “Why change it barely six days before the Senate goes on a break?”
Enrile alleged Villar wanted his man installed as Senate president not only to kill the C-5 issue but to set the stage for a bigger scenario.
“The canvassing is presided over by the Senate president. They want to control the proceedings for the canvassing,” Enrile said at a press conference.
“They wanted to replace me in order to control the discussion on the committee report prepared by me as chairman of the Committee of the Whole. Second, they want to go further so that when the time comes for the canvassing of the votes for president and vice president, the man sitting there as Senate president is a man controlled by Senator Villar,” he said.
Villar branded as lies the allegations in the report of the Committee of the Whole. The report recommended that he be censured over the C-5 road scandal and asked him to return P6.2 billion to government.
“Let me make it clear, they are all lies. I wonder where they got the P6.2 billion. It used to be only P200 million,” he said in an interview at his office, with daughter Camille and brother Jojo at his side.
Villar said he was not returning any amount.
Villar said he and his colleagues in the minority had already expected a biased committee report because most of those who prepared it were candidates in the national elections in May.
“Look at those who voted against me. They are members of the Liberal Party, Puwersa ng Masa. It’s clear they’re all biased,” he said.
The NP standard-bearer also lashed out at Enrile for calling him a coward, saying throughout his life he has always displayed courage and fortitude.
“I was born in Tondo and although I was born poor I’ve never lost courage,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Party (LP) called on Villar to face the music. “This is a crucial leadership test to see if Villar can truly dispute the damning findings and recommendations of the report, which has been endorsed by a majority of the senators.” Florencio “Butch” Abad, LP general campaign manager, said in a statement, “Instead of crying foul, Sen. Villar should accept Senate President Enrile’s challenge... and debate the merits of Enrile’s C5 report.
“The tactic of absenting himself and his allies from the session has been called chicken-like behavior and his attempt to mount a coup against the Senate leadership only cements the public perception that Villar cannot dispute charges of violation of conflict of interest provisions of the Constitution and improper and unethical conduct as a senator.” With Christina Mendez
Plot to unseat Enrile fizzles out at Senate By Aurea Calica and Christina Mendez (The Philippine Star) Updated January 20, 2010 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has survived an ouster plot believed to have been triggered by his release of a report on the C-5 road controversy involving presidential candidate Sen. Manuel Villar Jr.
Senators who declined to be named said the coup fizzled out when 11 of their colleagues who earlier signed Resolution No. 1472 dismissing the cases against Villar in connection with the C-5 anomaly refused to join the ouster plot.
The report of the Senate Committee of the Whole chaired by Enrile was not discussed at the plenary yesterday due to lack of quorum.
The report recommended that Villar be censured and ordered to pay P6.22 billion to the government.
Enrile’s committee found Villar guilty of conflict of interest and unethical conduct. Enrile was seen embracing some senators and even talking to them one by one before and after the session was adjourned due to lack of quorum.
Resolution No. 1472, released in November ahead of the report of the Committee of the Whole, has Villar himself as one of the signatories.
The other signatories were Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Senators Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano, Manuel Lapid Jr., Gregorio Honasan, Joker Arroyo, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Ramon Revilla Jr., Loren Legarda and Francis Pangilinan.
Of the 12, four are allied with the administration – Lapid, Arroyo, Santiago and Revilla.
But Estrada and Pangilinan signed Enrile’s report anyway, stressing that they were not making any judgment but would only like to pave the way for plenary debates on the issue.
“We signed the committee report of the Committee of the Whole in keeping with the official party stand decided yesterday (Tuesday), that at the very least the report ought to be presented in plenary regardless of whether we are for or against the findings. Pure and simple,” Pangilinan said.
“We did not endorse the findings in the report, and I may even opt to vote against it, take no part, or seek amendments should I disagree with its findings after it is presented. I am not the issue in the C-5 controversy. Senator Villar is the issue. I am not running for public office in 2010; he is,” Pangilinan said, adding, “They can attack me all they want, but it would be best that they focus their efforts instead on explaining their side on the C-5 controversy to the voters.”
Sources said the Villar camp was eyeing either Villar or Sen. Edgardo Angara as Enrile’s replacement.
But Angara signed the C-5 report along with Enrile, Estrada, Pangilinan, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senators Rodolfo Biazon, Panfilo Lacson, Jamby Madrigal, Benigno Aquino III, Manuel Roxas II, Richard Gordon and Francis Escudero.
Enrile declined to discuss the alleged plot to unseat him but he said it would be up to his colleagues. “I’m too old for this game,” Enrile said.
The Senate president wrapped an arm around Gordon when the latter showed up as the majority was trying to constitute a quorum.
The only ones present yesterday aside from Enrile were Estrada, Zubiri, Aquino, Roxas, Biazon, Madrigal, Gordon, Honasan and Escudero.
Those on official business were Pia Cayetano, Pangilinan, Revilla and Pimentel. Angara, Arroyo, Alan Cayetano, Lapid and Villar did not explain their absence.
Enrile said Lacson wrote that he could not attend while Santiago said she was sick. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is under detention.
“We believe that their boycott of (Tuesday’s) session was part of their efforts to block the debates on the report and for the public to know its contents,” a source said.
“I hope they will not underestimate my notion of what a president of a chamber like this can do,” said Enrile when asked if the absent senators could be compelled to attend the Senate sessions.
“I ask that for the remainder of the seven days of the adjournment that the Senate no longer grant any ‘official business’ for any senator so that we can ensure that we will be present.” Roxas said.
“Mr. President, as I note, there are 10 members, including Senator Gordon, on the floor. Unless a member comes, this Senate of the Republic of the Philippines, this Senate elected to conduct the people’s business, cannot so conduct the business this afternoon. On the face of it, five members have asked for official business and one reported as being sick,” Roxas said.
“I call it for what it is. I think there is an effort to prevent the consideration of the committee report on the case of Senator Villar. For what reason, each one can guess. I think it’s loud and clear, they do not want the public to hear what is contained in the report,” Enrile said after adjourning the session.
The session resumes today if there is quorum.
Coward
Enrile, meanwhile, called Villar a “coward” for evading the ethics charges against him.
“He should not be a coward. If he wants to be president, he should act like a man. If he acts that way, I will tell the people not to vote for him because he is a coward,” Enrile said.
Asked about Villar’s camp’s claim that the C-5 report was all about politics since he was running for president, Enrile said: “What’s political about it? We should be able to finish the case. I cannot file this after the elections. It has to be filed now.”
Nacionalista Party (NP) senatorial bet former Rep. Gilbert Remulla earlier said Villar “was tried not only by an impartial jury of peers but also by a team of rivals.”
Santiago, although absent from yesterday’s session, released an advance copy of a motion to acquit Villar of the ethics case.
Santiago said she was concerned that the Committee of the Whole failed to establish proof beyond reasonable doubt against Villar.
Meanwhile, Madrigal vowed to file a plunder case against Villar before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Madrigal, principal complainant in the ethics case against Villar, said it was her duty to see the case through because Villar would be running for president. – With Pia Lee-Brago
9 senators have signed report on C-5 road project - Enrile (The Philippine Star) Updated January 17, 2010 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines – Nine senators have signed the Senate Committee of the Whole’s report on the C-5 road project controversy involving Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said yesterday.
Villar was accused of asking the Senate committee on finance to “insert” an additional P200 million to speed up the construction of the C-5 road extension project. He denied it at first but Enrile later identified him as the one who sought the additional funding in the 2008 budget.
The issue became more controversial when Sen. Jamby Madrigal filed a case before the Senate ethics committee, saying the project was realigned to benefit the properties of Villar.
Enrile, chairman of the Senate Committee of the Whole, said the report was confidential and would not be debated on the floor if 12 senators that would compose a majority would not sign it.
“It will become a non-report (without the signatures),” Enrile said over radio station dwIZ. But he added it would be part of the records and the public could secure a copy and read it.
Enrile refused to divulge the names of those who have signed the report, said to be unfavorable to Villar.
He earlier said the report had considered testimonial and documentary pieces of evidence presented before the Committee of the Whole.
Since Villar refused to appear before the hearings, his side was never considered in the report.
Before the committee report was completed, Villar also secured a resolution dismissing the charges against him.
Twelve senators signed it but Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada later withdrew his signature because it was released before the committee report.
Villar snubbed the ethics committee hearings, saying its members were presidential aspirants like him and thus would not be fair.
The Senate then decided to refer it to the floor and Sen. Panfilo Lacson, ethics committee chairman, recommended that the Committee of the Whole hear the case instead.
The C-5 issue also cost Villar his Senate leadership as he was ousted as Senate president after the controversy broke out.
Villar, Nacionalista Party’s standard-bearer, has maintained he is innocent of the charges and that the Senate is a “kangaroo court” out to convict him and derail his bid for the presidency.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said he was unsure if the report could still be debated on the floor since they only have nine days more to conduct sessions before the start of the campaign period on Feb. 9.
But he called on his colleagues to sign the committee report so it could be filed and debated on the floor. “It’s going to be a bloody debate on whether the Senate should approve or reject the report,” Zubiri said.
He said signing the report would not mean concurrence to all of it because the senators could sign with reservations or objections.
The signatures from the majority will only allow the Committee of the Whole to file the report and tackle it on the floor.
“Otherwise, we cannot calendar it for plenary debates. It will be ideal for them to sign the report and decide whether it’s factual or not, if it’s warranted or not, after the debates. That’s the only time they should come up with a vote,” Zubiri said.
Enrile will defend the report since his office prepared it as chairman of the Committee of the Whole.
Zubiri said it would also be an opportunity for Villar to air his side because he had not been facing his colleagues.
Enrile said senators would try to finish their legislative agenda and attempt to pass 13 Senate bills and two House bills up for third reading during the resumption of session tomorrow. – Aurea Calica
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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