Monday, October 22, 2012

Villar, de Venecia out; Enrile, Nograles in


Villar, de Venecia out; Enrile, Nograles in
By Juliet L. Javellana and Martin P. Marfil
Inquirer News Service



THE PUNISHMENT was swift.

Thirteen senators, mostly belonging to the administration, yesterday booted out Sen. Manny Villar as Senate President 10 days after he resigned from the ruling Nacionalista Party coalition and called for the resignation of President Arroyo.

The 13 senators voted to install Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee investigating the "jueteng" payola, to replace Villar, who held the third highest position in the land for seven months.

Enrile, the 26th President of the Senate of the Philippines, will hold the distinction of being the Senate head when a sitting President is facing an Impeachment trial for the first time in the country’s history.

Some observers wondered if the voting would be the same during the Impeachment trial.

In the House of Representatives, pro-administration congressmen succeeded in replacing Speaker Manny Villar, who, like Drilon, bolted Liberal and supported the Impeachment of Mrs. Arroyo.

Elected the new Speaker was Rep. Prospero Nograles of Davao City.

Last night the House session turned rowdy as pro-administration representatives lost their composure with their continued inability to control the proceedings and effect the election of a new Speaker.

San Juan Rep. Jose Mari Gonzales lost his cool and punched the House sergeant-at-arms Bayani Fabic, in the face.

Akbayan Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales called for the ouster of Gonzales.

Witnesses said Gonzales tried to snatch the House mace when Deputy Speaker Alfredo Abueg, after the nominations and approval of the 11-member panel of prosecutors, declared the session suspended.

Gonzales was prevented from taking the mace and Fabic approached him. It was then that Gonzales punched Fabic, a retired Army general.

Others quickly rushed to prevent a melee from erupting. It was then that some congressmen turned their attention to the gallery who had howled when the incident happened.

Some congressmen told those in the gallery to stop the heckling while others directed the House sergeant-at-arms to have those in audience who howl and applaud arrested.

It was also at this time that the anti-de Venecia group pointed out that the rowdy session could be traced to an ineffective Speaker.

During the break, Deputy Speaker Daisy Fuentes took the podium and approved a motion to declare the post of the Speaker vacant.

This sparked another round of debates with pro-de Venecia legislators questioning why she took over when Abueg was still there.

The session then took another break. After the break, the nominations to the prosecution panel were approved while the motion to declare all positions vacant was rejected.

In his speech, Pimentel vowed to lead the Senate in the Impeachment trial "in a manner that will be fair and just to all concerned seeking only one objective: that the truth will come out of the Impeachment trial that shall, hopefully, put to rest the emotional conflict and the disturbing dissension that are being fueled by the accusations of presidential corruption and misconduct."

Enrile said he believed there was no room in the country’s democracy for the "adoption of extra-legal measures to obtain redress of the grievances of the people."

"Having said that, I hasten to add, at this point, the charges against the President are just that--charges that remain to be proven and established in accordance with the Impeachment process," Pimentel said.

The senators decided in a caucus to nominate Sen. Miriam Santiago as the next chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee.

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile was nominated justice committee chair, replacing Sen. Pia Cayetano.

The two committees are jointly investigating the jueteng payola.

Sources in Malacañang said the Pimentel accession to the Senate presidency was part of an over-all plan to ease him out of the blue ribbon committee in charge of the jueteng hearings.

Santiago is known for her critical grilling of Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson during the Senate hearings on the jueteng controversy.

"They felt that they could not control Pimentel," the source said.

He revealed that Pimentel had two more witnesses who would corroborate the transfer of the P200-million excise tax on tobacco from Ilocos Sur to Manila. The President allegedly pocketed the money.

Drilon’s staunch ally, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, would likewise be punished.

The senators wanted to give the Senate defense and housing committees, which he chairs, to Sen. Gregorio Honasan and Sen. Robert Jaworski respectively.

An administration senator alleged that Sen. Vicente Sotto III "spoke to Pimentel last (Sunday) night and asked if he would be supportive of you-know-who (the President) and he (Pimentel) said yes."

Pimentel, however, said before he was elected yesterday that he was accepting the nomination only if there were no deals from the camps of Mrs. Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro.

Another administration senator, who asked not to be named, told the INQUIRER that the majority senators had not decided between Pimentel and Tatad until former Sen. Ernesto Maceda intervened in behalf of the President.

Maceda reportedly met with some senators at the President’s private residence on Polk Street in Greenhills, San Juan.

The source said Maceda told Coseteng that "the candidate of the group is Nene because Kit is no longer in the running."

Tatad supposedly "blew his top" and angrily called the President by phone.

Tatad reportedly asked the President why he "brought Maceda in" when he said he would not intervene in Senate affairs.

The source said Tatad had threatened to withdraw from the coalition but was "prevailed upon."

An opposition senator, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that before the 13 senators held a caucus they had not chosen between Pimentel and Tatad.

"As of lunchtime, there was still a contest between Kit and Nene. I don’t know what happened," the senator said.

It was Pimentel’s stint as blue ribbon chair in the past 12 hearings on the jueteng scandal, which swept him to the Senate presidency.

Drilon fell out of grace after he bolted LAMP and appeared in the prayer rally against Mr. Estrada at the Edsa Shrine on Nov. 4.

Those who voted for Pimentel were Senators Teresa Aquino-Oreta, Anna Dominique Coseteng, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Juan Ponce Enrile, Robert Jaworski, John Osmeña, Sergio Osmeña III, Ramon Revilla, Vicente Sotto III, Senate President Pro Tempore Blas Ople, Tatad and Pimentel himself.

They were the same ones who held the caucus at noon.

Only Sergio Osmeña III belongs to the opposition. Coseteng, Jaworski and Revilla have bolted the LAMP and described themselves as independents.

Coseteng held a joint press conference with Drilon and Biazon when they resigned from the coalition on Nov. 3.

Six senators voted for Senate Minority Leader Teofisto Guingona Jr., whom Drilon nominated for the Senate presidency.

They were Renato Cayetano, Juan Flavier, Loren Legarda-Leviste all of whom belong to the opposition party Lakas-NUCD; and opposition Senators Ramon Magsaysay Jr. of Liberal Party and Raul Roco of Aksyon Demokratiko.

The election took place less than two hours after 13 senators agreed in a caucus to vote for Pimentel.

Pimentel took his oath before Ople and assumed the Senate helm without fanfare.

True to his words, Enrile made a motion to declare all Senate positions vacant to pave the way for the election.

Enrile said the election was necessary to determine who were in the majority and in the minority.

Guingona, Biazon, Cayetano and Legarda, who said the reorganization should take a backseat to the Impeachment process, passionately opposed Enrile’s motion.

Guingona said there was neither great hurry nor compelling reason to reorganize the Senate leadership, because the Senate’s greater mandate was to tackle the Impeachment trial.

Tatad asked for a vote on Enrile’s motion. Twelve senators voted to declare the positions vacant and seven voted no.

In nominating Pimentel, Sergio Osmeña noted that he was a former detainee of the Marcos regime and a fighter against electoral fraud.

He hailed Pimentel’s "consistently cool and even-handed handling" of the jueteng investigation which started on Oct. 9.

Oreta described Pimentel, a compadre of the President, as a "thoroughbred" and John Osmeña and Jaworski also heaped praise on him.

"Considering that 13 votes are needed, I vote for myself," Pimentel said, saying he wanted to abstain like Guingona. Indeed, he would not have been Senate President if he did not vote for himself.

Roco said it was difficult for him to choose between Pimentel and Guingona and wanted to abstain, but "for the good of the country, Senator Guingona should be Senate President."
--With a report from Donna S. Cueto

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