Miriam joins new majority

Despite calling the new Senate majority bloc as “serial adulterers,” pro-administration Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago opted yesterday to stay with the new majority a week after she kept her colleagues and the public guessing whether she would remain with the group of ousted Senate president Manuel Villar Jr.

Santiago, an ally of President Arroyo, has announced that she is supporting the new leadership of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile who managed to get 14 votes last Monday, which was enough to force Villar’s resignation.

Santiago explained that her decision to stay with the majority was primarily due to her alliance with the administration.

She described the administration bloc as “adulterous murderers” for working its way to the majority during the term of Villar and now with Enrile.

“In a jocular way, I was in a dilemma. At the start of this Congress, the Senate administration bloc allied itself with a sector of the opposition, to become part of the majority. At that time, administration senators were accused of sleeping with the enemy. Now, the administration bloc has again allied itself, but this time with a different sector of the opposition, to form the new majority,” Santiago said.

“Hence, it might seem to critics that the administration bloc to which I belong has become a serial adulterer,” she said.

During Villar’s term, opposition allies of Villar accused their colleagues in the opposition – including Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Senators Francis Escudero, and Alan Peter Cayetano – of sleeping with the enemy, referring to the administration bloc.

Now, the tide has turned against Villar and the “accusers” were Senators Jamby Madrigal, Loren Legarda, Panfilo Lacson, Mar Roxas and Rodolfo Biazon, who have joined forces with the same administration bloc. Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has remained in the minority bloc.

Aside from Santiago, new Senate President Enrile, new Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., and Edgardo Angara, are now with the administration bloc.

Sen. Richard Gordon is projecting himself as an independent senator although he is perceived to be an administration senator. Another administration senator, Lito Lapid, has now decided to become part of the majority after flip-flopping on his vote for Enrile.

Sen. Joker Arroyo is the lone administration senator with the minority group.

“I have decided to join the new majority, because it still partly consists of the administration bloc to which I belong,” Santiago said.

She added that she was absent and silent at the height of the Senate coup because she was sick with diarrhea, which could be due to intestinal flu or an old amoebiasis.

Santiago claimed she was clueless about the Senate coup, adding that in her entire Senate career, the plotters never consulted her beforehand. “Either I don’t count, or I am considered unapproachable,” she said.

Confirming that Enrile tried to speak to her by telephone on the eve of the coup last Nov. 17, Santiago said: “Thus, when Senator Enrile called me several times on the Sunday before the coup, I had no clue that he wished me to sign the coup resolution. I had intestinal flu, was in bed, and had requested my husband to field all my phone calls. To say that I was avoiding him is a misimpression. I do not avoid, I confront,” she said.

During the revamp yesterday, Santiago retained her seat as chairperson of the Senate committee on foreign relations.