Enrile wants vote on Manny Villar by Wednesday

January 31, 2010

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile wanted senators to decide by Wednesday, the last day of Congress
session, on the “fate” of Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. who was found guilty of unethical conduct in a Senate committee of the whole report on the C-5 road controversy even if debates on the issue takes overnight, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said.

“He (Enrile) sent a blast text message to all majority members that this is a conscience vote and he will not bind the members of the majority to vote either in favor or against (the report’s findings and recommendations). It’s up to us as to what we have seen in the evidence in the committee report,” Zubiri said, referring to the committee of the whole report on the alleged unethical conduct of Villar.

In a radio interview, Zubiri revealed that he recently received instructions from the Senate chief to schedule the debates and final voting on committee report No. 780 by Wednesday, their last day of plenary session before they go on another round of congressional break.

The majority leader was specifically told by Enrile to ensure that there will be voting on the panel report.

“Win or lose for the majority, he said, there should be voting on it. He said he’s leaving it to me when to schedule the report. He texted me yesterday (Saturday) to set the date for voting. So I’m appealing to my colleagues in the minority that if possible, we take this up this Wednesday, the entire Wednesday. We will start the debates at 3 o’clock until sawa para magkaroon ng botohan dyan,” he said.

Zubiri admitted that he deliberately scheduled the report mid this week to prevent another clash on the floor between some of the warring senators and this will only derail

their proceedings.

“No one can prevent our colleagues to take the floor and denate with the authors of the two resolution (that called for the conduct of an inquiry), for or in favour of the C-5 road report,” he said.

Zubiri dismissed claims made by Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. that the majority bloc is merely buying time to ensure that they will have enough votes to nail down Villar.

“They can out political color into this but they know that we have a lot of pending bills needed to be acted upon,” he said.

“I am hoping that our colleagues, these are statesmen and women, will accede to my request to deliberate on this on Wednesday and pagkatapos magkamayan tayo at umpiasahan natin ang electoral campaign.

“I think the voting will not be anymore on the report (or resolution) of the minority but on the report of the committee of the whole which was sponsored by Enrile. Useless na magkaroon ng botohan on the resolution dahil pareho lang topic dyan. What take precendence is the committee report of the majority.

“Mayroon po tayong fundamental question on how many votes are needed to censure. There is the group of Sen. Pimentel and Santiago that 16 votes is needed. There is another group led by Enrile, and myself included, it needs 12 votes or simple majority only. This is not suspension or removal of the office as senator. Ito po ay censure lamang.

“But at the end of the day, the decision will be made by the Senate as collegial body. I think it’s up to us senators to decide. Wala sa rules we are allowed to amend our rules for that particular issue only,” he added.

An ally of Villar, meanwhile, said the C-5 road controversy may continue hounding the beleaguered candidate for the presidency even during the campaign period.

Time may ran out on senators who are expected to go on a head-on collision in resuming this week the floor debates on the committee of the whole report on the alleged ethical misconduct of Villar surrounding the C-5 road extension project, as Congress is set to go on another recess.

“It’s possible that we may not be able to finish the debates and I always have this doubt that they wanted to put this in hanging so that they can use it as a political issue against Villar, of course,” Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said, in reference to the majority bloc members, during an interview over at dzBB.

Pimentel reiterated his assessment that the majority bloc is buying time, the reason the matter of the committee report was put in their so-called legislative calendar for Wednesday, the last day of their plenary sessions to ensure that they could muster the needed numbers should deliberations bring them to voting process.

At least two members are already abroad, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada who is in the United States to attend to the medical needs of his wife and Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

“So they’re not sure if they can get more than 12 (votes) or absolute majority. We feel that we need not put any requirements on what should be the number of votes to impose the penalty on Villar,” he said.

Villar, who is effectively found “guilty” of unethical conduct in funding the C-5 road extension project is called to be “censured” by the upper chamber and refund the cost of P6.2 billion of the project to the government.

“The ball is in the hands of the majority. They’re the ones deciding on what will be our agenda (during plenary proceedings). If they want debates to go on even after life, then we’ll accede to it. It’s really up to them if they want another round of protracted debates, even a messy one,” he said.

“The problem now is, if they will place it in the agenda, we will insist that we interpellate on the committee report. We cannot allow it to be disposed just like that and it will take two to three days to finish,” he said.

Pimentel pointed out that there are actually two reports they need to debate on in the issue of C-5 controversy, the committee report that meted Villar with penalties and the resolution filed by the minority bloc and some members of the majority seeking to absolve the senator from the charges.

“It would be better if there will be an all-senators caucus like what we used to do in the past. We need not take this on a personal level. It will be clear to everyone how the deliberations will be carried, smoother proceedings,” he said.

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