Dangerous precedents

Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile, presided the Senate Committee of the Whole, which voted unanimously to continue the investigation against Sen. Manny Villar on his alleged “double insertion” in the 2008 budget for the C-5 road extension project. The Senate Committee of the Whole, or should I say Senate committee of the half since there were only 12 of them in attendance yesterday, including Enrile, voted “Yes” to the Senate Resolution that calls for the continuation of the ethics probe against Villar.

The Senators, all from the ruling majority, found “substantial basis” on the “conflict of interest” raised against Villar in the complaint filed by Sen. Jamby Madrigal before the Senate ethics committee. Actually, it was Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson who first exposed the alleged “double insertion” of P200 million for the C-5 road extension project that all of them in Congress approved under the 2008 budget while Villar was still the Senate president.

Jamby filed the complaint against Villar after the Senate leadership coup in September last year that installed Enrile as new Senate chief. Lacson took over as chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics in the subsequent reorganization of the various Senate committees.

Aside from Enrile, Ping and Jamby, those who also cast “yes” votes yesterday were Senate majority leader Miguel Zubiri, Senators Rodolfo Biazon, Richard Gordon, Jinggoy Estrada, Loren Legarda, Mar Roxas II, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, Gregorio Honasan, and Edgardo Angara.

I take my hat off to these Senators for taking this bold move. They have finally set a precedent, though dangerous for the lawmakers themselves. Each one of them can now be taken to the Senate Ethics Committee for any of their congressional insertions in the annual budget that could be found tainted with conflict of interest.

Villar himself did not attend the Senate Committee of the Whole hearing. He called for a press conference later in the afternoon yesterday and reiterated his stand he won’t allow himself to be used as a political kickball. Villar minced no words in referring in particular to his known rivals at the Senate running in the May 2010 presidential elections.

In fairness to a fellow presidential aspirant — Roxas, Legarda, Lacson, and Gordon, they explained their respective “Yes” votes as a way to give Villar due process and opportunity to clear himself over such serious accusations. Jinggoy who has allied himself in the past with Villar cited the same reason for voting “Yes” to the Senate Resolution. Well and good for them.

Villar’s allies led by Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., and Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and his “Ate” Pia were also no-shows at the hearing. Absent were Senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Lito Lapid, who are all part of the majority and minority Senators Joker Arroyo and Francis ”Kiko” Pangilinan.

So effectively, 12 is the magic number out of the 22 voting Senators due to the vacancy that arose following the election to a new post of their former colleague and now Manila City Mayor Alfredo Lim. Since he is under military detention, Sen. Antonio Trillanes III could not participate and therefore could not vote.

This paves the way for a preliminary or pre-trial conference on Villar’s ethics case that Enrile set on Tuesday. Enrile said Villar will not be compelled to appear in the preliminary conference “if he does not want to.” The Madrigal complaint alleged that Villar caused the realignment of the C-5 Road Extension project to benefit the properties registered in the name of the corporations owned and controlled by him and his family. 

It added that Villar allegedly committed conflict of interest when he failed to divest himself of his interests in corporations whose properties were acquired by the government for road right of way for the Las Pinas-Parañaque Link Road. Madrigal also alleged that Villar made an insertion of P200 million in the 2008 budget for the construction of the C-5 Road extension project from the Southern Luzon Expressway to Sucat Road, including the right of way when “such project is already covered by an appropriation for the same amount in the same law”.

These were the same allegations used by the anti-Villar Senators who engineered his ouster as Senate president. Now, they are using the same allegations that could get him punished by the Senate Committee on Ethics. That sounds more like politics.

Isn’t this a case of double jeopardy because the same Senators who ousted Villar as Senate president will vote on his supposed guilt on the same charges after the examination of affidavits and evidence that would be presented during the “trial” of this ethics case on him? Villar may face the lightest penalty of admonition or expulsion as the most extreme penalty that can be slapped on a Senator found guilty in an ethics case.

Enrile told Senators yesterday that the punishment by the Senate Ethics Committee, if ever it comes to pass, will have no effect on Villar’s plans to run for president in next year’s elections. A shrewd and wily politician that he is, Enrile is obviously speaking facetiously. Villar himself is unfazed by such prospects. In a press conference he called yesterday after opting to stay out of the Senate proceedings against him, he declared he reserves the right to defend himself all the way to the courts where he believes he would get justice.

Villar, who heads his own Nacionalista Party, has opted for now to fight this ethics case before the bars of public opinion through the media. He brought the entire Senate media on Wednesday at the construction site in one of the portions of the C-5 road extension project being undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways. He showed to the media that it is not just one road project that has supposedly gotten “double insertions” in the budget. But actually, these are two different link roads to benefit residents in the cities of Las Piñas, Parañaque, and Muntinlupa but will also ease travel time and traffic all the way from Cavite to Quezon City.

Unfortunately, Villar’s foes would hear none of it. But whether they like it or not, they would have to hear from Villar through the media. Villar is taking them on this dangerous precedent.