Villar snubs ethics probe

MANILA, Philippines – Embattled Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. remained unfazed even as he skipped yesterday’s resumption of the proceedings of the Committee of the Whole and instead opted to air his side on the accusations of Sen. Jamby Madrigal outside the plenary.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, however, assured Villar that his substantial rights will be respected and that he or his counsel, and even “all the other petitioners in the case now pending before the Supreme Court (SC), are free and welcome at any time during the entire proceeding to join and participate in the adjudicatory hearing.”

The Senate scrutinized the pieces of evidence filed by Madrigal against Villar on the first day of the ethics trial.

Madrigal discussed with the majority senators how Villar’s corporations supposedly benefited in the millions from the road right of way acquisition along two key areas at the C-5 Road extension project.

Enrile earlier declared that the Senate is proceeding with the first day of trial with due respect to the SC where a petition for certiorari with request for temporary restraining order (TRO) is pending.

Enrile vowed that the Senate will comply with the SC’s order for the Senate majority to respond until 9 a.m. today on the petition filed by the minority questioning the fairness of the rules of the Senate committee of the whole and the apparent abuse of discretion by its chairman.

“The Senate is simply relying on our time-honored constitutional principle that the three branches of government are separate, co-equal and coordinate. One is not above or under any other,” the Senate chief said.

Madrigal used a slide show to illustrate that Villar, with two other business corporations – Amvel owned by El Shaddai’s Mariano “Mike” Velarde and the SM Properties Inc. – pushed for the realignment of the road construction project in 1998.

Madrigal also cited several documents showing how an original plan to construct the Manila-Cavite toll expressway was scrapped in favor of the new C-5 Road project.

The Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) project was part of a toll operation agreement dated July 20, 1996 between the government, through the Public Estates Authority (PEA), and private Malaysian company UEM Mara.

Madrigal told the committee that 16 of the 39 lots acquired by the government for road right of way belong to the corporations owned by Sen. Villar and his wife, Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, which were the Adelfa Properties Inc. and Golden Haven Memorial Park Inc.

Sen. Villar owns 52 percent of Adelfa Properties Inc. while his wife owns 48 percent, said Madrigal, according to the Articles of Incorporation presented by the couple to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The 35-hectare Golden Haven Property is registered under the ownership of Adelfa Properties.

Madrigal also questioned why the government paid the Villar-owned firms for three of the 16 lots when these have already been foreclosed by the Central Bank.

Villar’s counsel, Nalen Galang, said Madrigal’s claims about the foreclosed properties were misleading.

She explained that about P10.7 million paid by the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) for the properties were already forwarded to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).  

At the time of the government acquisition, Galang explained that the land titles of the three lots involving about 4,000 square meters in total were indeed foreclosed, but they were not yet registered under the BSP.

At one point during the hearing, Enrile asked Madrigal if she has authenticated the signatures in the toll agreement between then DPWH Secretary Gregorio Vigilar and officials of a Malaysian firm.

Conflict of interest

Madrigal surmised that Villar had a conflict of interest because he sought the inclusion of P200 million for the C-5 Road Extension project during deliberations on the 2008 budget.

She said Villar, who was then chairman of the Finance committee, exerted undue influence to enable him to collect the remaining P84-million road right of way payment that the government still owes his corporation.

Upon motion of Lacson, the Senate president approved the conduct of an ocular inspection of the two road projects for better appreciation of the documentary evidence presented by Madrigal.

Enrile said the Senate committee of the whole will subpoena in the next hearings the officials of concerned government offices mentioned by Madrigal in the hearing.

Barring any TRO from the Supreme Court, the Senate resumes its hearings on Thursday.

Enrile said the committee would call on officials of the BSP and the DPWH to explain why Villar remained the beneficiary.

The Senate president said the committee also wants to know why the DPWH junked a first road project with the TRB under a memorandum of agreement in 1996 in favor of the C-5 Road extension project.

‘Not competent’

However, Villar’s camp slammed Madrigal for not being competent in presenting the evidence, which included voluminous documents such as the toll agreement between the TRB and the PEA in 1996.

“In the courts, you can present documents only if you have participated in the preparation of the documents or you can testify on the authenticity or genuineness of the signatures,” Galang said.

“But if you will just assess Jamby’s testimony, for all legal intents and purposes, I don’t think there was much weight because she was not competent to testify on those documents,” she added. “They were making conclusions on their own that are not actually supported by documents.”

Asked why Villar remained reluctant to attend the Senate proceedings, Galang said their camp has been trying to explain the issue to the media and that people should respect his decision not to join the Senate proceedings because he finds its composition biased against him.

However, he said he is elated that instead of further nailing him to the controversy, the evidence presented by Madrigal even backed his earlier claim that there were two road projects. – Christina Mendez