Palace: No hand in Ed’s coup

Malacañang said yesterday President Arroyo had no part in Sen. Edgardo Angara’s plot to oust Senate President Franklin Drilon last Monday.

"This is an internal matter in which the President or the Office of the President would not interfere," said Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye.

When asked whether Angara could have been emboldened to try to snatch the Senate leadership following his meetings with Mrs. Arroyo, Bunye replied, "I don’t think so. The President was very unequivocal when she said that this is a matter that is left to the Senate."

Bunye said Angara’s attempt to topple Drilon was not surprising as the senator would "naturally" want to get back the post that he had once occupied.

"I think it’s an open secret," Bunye said. "Having held the position, he (Angara) would try to get it back if he had the chance."

Last Tuesday, Angara admitted that he did try to oust Drilon because under a term-sharing agreement, Drilon was supposed to have been replaced by ailing Sen. Renato Cayetano at the end of 2002.

Mrs. Arroyo was not a party to the attempted changeover, Angara said in an exclusive interview Tuesday night with Pia Hontiveros over the ANC public affairs program "Strictly Politics."

Last Monday, the day the coup was supposed to be implemented, Angara said all the coup reports were just media hype.

Angara, president of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, said that the minority conceived of wresting the Senate leadership because there was a "vacancy" in the top Senate post at yearend.

He pointed out that there was a term-sharing agreement between Drilon and Cayetano, with Drilon’s term supposed to end last Dec. 31.

He added that Cayetano could not take over as the latter was in the United States awaiting a liver transplant.

"We thought we’ll make a bid for it and I think it’s legitimate because it’s vacant. Now, so it’s just a question whether we have the support or not," Angara explained.

He admitted, however, that the minority which has 10 members, failed to muster the 13 votes needed to wrest the Senate presidency.

"We had the support of all the minority except one," he added, but refused to identify who was the exception.

Sen. John Osmeña said last Friday that he and his cousin, Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, were against replacing Drilon. The two are members of the minority, although they maintain that they do not belong to the opposition.

Osmeña said he learned of the "coup" attempt last Jan. 1 when he was asked by Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta to attend a minority caucus at her residence. He said that right there and then, he told the minority members present that he would not support any coup attempt.

Angara said they decided against pushing through the coup bid because they did not have the needed 13 votes.

Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III said that it is but to be expected that the minority would always try to wrest the leadership "whenever the opportunity presents itself."

There were earlier rumors that Angara had cut a deal with the President to support Charter change and no election in 2004 in exchange for the Senate presidency.

Both Angara and Malacañang denied there was any such deal.

Angara said that in his two meetings with the President in Malacañang, "arranged by two mutual friends," they merely discussed support for priority measures and the establishment of a "unity government."

"We never discussed no election or Cha-cha, so charges aired by some of our colleagues in the Senate were false and unfair," Angara said.