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WHILE
Sen. Manuel Villar appeared to have sewed up the
Senate’s top leadership position, that of Speaker of the
House remains to hang fire especially with the absence
of the 13th Congress Speaker, Jose de Venecia, still one
of the contenders.
President Arroyo affirmed she remains steadfast in her
resolve to stay neutral in the speakership fight,
explaining that de Venecia had been left behind in
Equatorial Guinea to complete her state visit that she
had to cut short owing to important work waiting here.
She said
that out of “deference” to Guinean President Obiang
Nguema Mbasago, who wanted her to stay longer, she
decided instead to leave a ranking government
official—the Speaker—to complete the trip on her behalf.
That is the reason why she brought him along, she added.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said, meanwhile, that
“the speakership battle is an internal affair of the
House of Representatives as the Senate presidency is an
affair of the legislature.”
He added
that when the President administered the oath to Lakas
members in the 14th Congress, she was only performing
her duty as Lakas chairman.
Villar’s
pinning down the Senate presidency was confirmed by Sen.
Ralph Recto because he has more than the minimum 13
votes needed to thwart the dogged resolve of a core
group of opposition senators pushing for Senate Minority
Leader Aquilino Pimentel for the post.
Recto
reported that at least eight proadministration, three
opposition and two independent senators, plus Villar,
add up to a total of 14 votes, one more than the
required number to get the seat in the 14th Congress
convening on July 23.
Recto
said among the administration-allied senators who have
committed to back Villar were Juan Ponce Enrile, Miriam
Santiago, Richard Gordon, Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla, Pia
Cayetano-Sebastian, Edgardo Angara and Joker Arroyo.
Recto
declined to name the three opposition senators
supporting for Villar’s bid to retain his post, but
other Senate insiders privy to the backroom negotiations
confided they include Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and newly
elected Sens. Francis Escudero and Alan Cayetano of the
Genuine Opposition.
The same
sources also named independents Francis Pangilinan and
Gregorio Honasan among those who committed to back
Villar.
Recto,
Villar, Pangilinan and Joker Arroyo, along with Vice
President Noli de Castro, are members of the so-called
Wednesday Club, an exclusive bloc known to be
sympathetic to Malacañang.
There
were speculations that Villar must have succeeded in
getting the blessings of detained former president
Joseph Estrada to prevail on his son, Jinggoy, to vote
for Villar instead of Pimentel.
Recto, a
Nacionalista Party (NP) stalwart, indicated that Villar
had no difficulty winning over Alan Cayetano, a
partymate in the NP of which Villar is current party
boss.
By
Recto’s reckoning, only two issues will determine the
choice of new Senate President of the 14th Congress: the
2010 presidential elections and the individual senators
choices of Senate committees they want to chair.
There
are at least four known presidential wannabes in the
opposition camp including Villar, Panfilo Lacson, Loren
Legarda and Mar Roxas II, who are expected to slug it
out in the runup to the 2010 elections to pick the
successor of President Arroyo.
Recto
says this may explain the current split in the
opposition ranks but he is confident that Villar would
be able to smooth things out with his opposition
colleagues known to be backing Pimentel before Congress
opens regular sessions next month. |
