Battle at Senate degenerates into name-calling

The battle for the Senate presidency has degenerated into name-calling, with opposition Sen. Jamby Madrigal branding Senators Manuel Villar, Jinggoy Estrada, Francis Escudero and Alan Peter Cayetano  as “fly-by-night” opposition members and “bangaw” or bottle flies.

Madrigal joined the fray as she accused Villar of “using the opposition” to win in the last elections.

Speaking after the opposition caucus at the Manila Polo Club, Madrigal said the Solid 8 “represent the principled 8 at the Senate and we vow to stick together without betraying the people’s mandate.”

“We are not fly-by-night bangaws (big flies),” Madrigal added.

The STAR tried to reach Villar but to no avail. His camp said the Senate president has decided not to speak about the issue until both chambers convene for the 14th Congress today.

Last week, Sen. Panfilo Lacson also called his former colleagues Escudero, Estrada, Cayetano and Villar as “political mongrels.”

Escudero called Lacson a “spoiler” for splitting the opposition in 2004 when he ran for president against the late Fernando Poe Jr. while Estrada described the former police chief as a woman scorned who keeps on talking.

Madrigal also criticized Villar for espousing administration-backed legislation particularly the Human Security Act of 2007, principally sponsored by her nemesis Juan Ponce Enrile, when she was not able to interpellate the anti-terror bill last year.

“This supposedly opposition-Senate president is really using the institution clearly for  his own personal ambition and I challenge him to repeal or amend the anti-terror bill which is being used as an instrument to rap the Filipino people’s civil rights. I challenge him to repeal the anti-terrorist bill and prove that he is not only using the opposition for his own personal ambition,” Madrigal said.

Madrigal, who arrived at the caucus straight from the airport,  claimed the opposition bloc led by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. is the Senate with a “conscience” which will push for the Filipino people’s interest.

“I think I will call them (us) the eight with the conscience, the Solid 8, the principled 8 who represent those of us who are opposition, those of us who ran with the opposition out of conviction and principle, who did not use the opposition as a means to win and then cross over and betray the people’s mandate,” Madrigal said.

Even before attending the caucus, Madrigal wrote former President Joseph Estrada and aired her concern over the division within the opposition.

“Yet we are at the brink of throwing it all away in the name of making deals. Rather than remain true to our mandate... the leadership of this chamber might be decided in terms of an accommodation with administration rather than by means of the opposition exclusively deciding the Senate leadership,” Madrigal said in her letter to Estrada. – Christina Mendez