Enrile declares war on Senate minority over Villar case

MANILA, Philippines - Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile declared war yesterday on the members of the Senate minority over their decision to go to the Supreme Court to stop the committee of the whole from continuing its investigation into the charges against Sen. Manuel Villar Jr.

Enrile called Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. a hypocrite and unleashed personal attacks on him for calling the Senate president a “dictator” and criticizing the way he was chairing the committee of the whole.

But Pimentel stressed he is not afraid of Enrile.

Pimentel, who is turning 76 this year, joked he would face Enrile, 85, in any fight except for a “gun battle because I am not used to that.” 

“I don’t have a gun in the first place and I don’t know how to fire one,” he said.

But Enrile and Pimentel apparently share a common attribute: They are used to getting what they want and are enraged because they are not being followed this time.

Enrile said Pimentel was a hypocrite because he would call him “manong,” Ilocano for big brother and friend.

“Senator Pimentel sometimes pretends to be friendly and civil in front of me, but takes every opportunity to stab and personally attack me when my back is turned by calling me names and endlessly connecting his gripes against me with my role in the Martial Law regime. I am neither stupid nor a fool to have ever thought that he is, or will ever be, my friend. I will only let history and God judge me,” Enrile said in a statement.

“And so, to Senator Pimentel, I say: ‘There is no need for you to feel awkward by addressing me as ‘manong’ or ‘friend’. Next time you see me, you can unburden yourself, be a man, and say whatever you want to say against me to my face and I will respond in equal measure,” Enrile said.

Enrile also said Pimentel had taken his personal hatred for him to another level, this time “by characterizing my actions as the unabashed display of dictatorial tendencies” abetted by a majority of the members of the committee of the whole.

“He has repeatedly called me names before: ‘authoritarian,’  ‘dictator,’ ‘Martial Law administrator,’ etc. and accused me of ‘dagdag bawas (padding and shaving)’ and many more. This is nothing really new. I owe him nothing and he owes me nothing, too. Yet I have endeavored in all sincerity to accord him the civility required of each of us as senators of the republic,”  Enrile said.

Enrile assailed Pimentel for acting more as a lawyer for the respondent than as an impartial member of the committee of the whole.

“Perhaps, if the Supreme Court denies their petition for injunction and/or temporary restraining order, Senator Villar should consider hiring Senator Pimentel as his legal counsel and I will allow him to enter his appearance as such,” Enrile said.

Enrile also implied Pimentel was a junketeer, using Senate finances for his travels in the guise of attending “human rights conferences.”

He said Pimentel and even Villar would surely go out of the country during the break beginning this June but that they should use their own money for their travels.

Pimentel, for his part, said he could not understand why Enrile was fuming mad now when the Senate chief was the one who dared the minority to go to court.

The minority said the transfer of the complaint against Villar from the ethics committee to the committee of the whole was violative of Villar’s constitutional right to equal protection and that its rules were arbitrary.

“We are not attacking the Senate but his Martial Law ways of leading the committee. We are not enemies, we are opponents,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel said he was not lawyering for Villar, “who is capable of defending himself,” but fighting as minority leader so that the right procedures of investigation would be followed.

Pimentel added Enrile could not accuse him of stabbing him in the back because “my comments against him were public and even televised.”

“I am openly accusing him of being a dictator in running the affairs of the committee,” Pimentel said.

He further said Enrile could not threaten him in any way.

“I will go on with my duties,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel also vowed to address the Senate chief as “Mr. Enrile rather than ‘manong’ if that is what he wants.”

“If I call him ‘manong’ to his face I am just being civil,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel said he was asking Enrile for full debates on the issues involving the case of Villar but the Senate chief never listened.

“He forgets that this is no longer Martial Law. That is his frame of mind. In debating, we only disagree on issues. There should be nothing personal about it,” Pimentel said.

“I will always stand my ground in reason. That I can assure Mr. Enrile,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel said the majority led by Enrile could not consider the issue internal because “there will be other people called or implicated in the hearings” so the rules must be  fair and clear.

Pimentel said they were hoping for the best with their petition before the SC.

“He was the one who challenged us several times to do it. He might have forgotten that,” Pimentel said in jest.

Enrile said as Senate President and chairman of the committee of the whole constituted to hear the ethics complaint filed against Villar, he was fully prepared to face the SC to defend the independence and integrity of the Senate as an institution in the face of the case filed by the senators from the minority.