Joker defends Villar, De Venecia

Maverick Sen. Joker Arroyo took the cudgels yesterday for Senate colleague Manuel Villar Jr. and beleaguered Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.

In a statement, Arroyo said Villar is in danger of losing his one-year term under the term-sharing agreement he had with Senate President Franklin Drilon because the Liberals led by Drilon "want to have their cake and eat it too."

He said when Villar and Drilon agreed to halve the remaining three-year term of the Senate president without consulting their colleagues in the majority, only two complained and they are members of the Liberal Party, which Drilon chairs.

He identified the two as Senators Manuel "Mar" Roxas and Rodolfo Biazon who, he said, have declared that they were not bound by the term-sharing agreement.

"This song-and-dance play of the Liberals is distressing. Come 2006 and Senator Villar will assume the Senate presidency, Senator Drilon can always say in all earnestness that he will honor his agreement with Villar, but his fellow Liberals, Biazon and Roxas, will say that since the agreement is personal to the two of them, they are not bound by it, thereby effectively derailing the term-sharing agreement. That ploy ensures the continued stay in Drilon in the Senate presidency after two years and effectively sidelines Villar," Arroyo stressed.

He said it would have been understandable if it were the non-Liberal senators who complained about the time-sharing agreement.

"But no, two ranking Liberal senators, with tongue in cheek, denounced the agreement entered into by their (party) chairman. Even before the time-sharing agreement has started, they have provided an exit for their commander-in-chief to hang on. Cunning, indeed," he said.

Arroyo later told The STAR in an interview that the Liberal Party is apparently resorting to the same "song-and -dance play" not only in the Senate but also in the House of Representatives.

"Nanggugulo sila sa Senado, nanggugulo din sila sa House. Ano bang gusto nila? Kawawa naman si Joe de Venecia (They are making trouble in the Senate, they are also making trouble in the House. What do they really want? I pity Joe de Venecia)," he said.

He was apparently referring to the decision of Drilon’s LP to coalesce with the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), the party founded by President Arroyo in 1997 for her presidential bid then. Mrs. Arroyo later decided to run for vice president instead.

Although it professes support for De Venecia, the combined LP-Kampi poses a threat to the Speaker’s leadership. The two pro-Arroyo groups coalesced after De Venecia’s Lakas bloc decided to continue its partnership with Nationalist People’s Coalition congressmen led by Gilberto Teodoro Jr. of Tarlac.