Drilon, Cayetano OK term-sharing

Senators Franklin Drilon and Renato Cayetano have agreed to share the term of the Senate president when the 12th Congress opens on Monday, Sen. Juan Flavier said yesterday.

Meanwhile, President Arroyo met privately at Ma-lacañang yesterday with Senators Manuel Villar Jr., Joker Arroyo, Ralph Recto and Francis Pangilinan, all of the pro-administration People Power Coalition (PPC).

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao refused to disclose details of the closed-door meeting with the neophyte senators, who are said to have the "swing votes" in the race for the Senate presidency.

"It’s a private meeting with senators, and the President prefers not to comment on the nature of their discussions," Tiglao told reporters yesterday. "What I know (is that) the President... wants to meet maybe all the incoming senators just to make sure she touches base (with them) early enough so it would be a very cooperative Senate and Congress to her legislative agenda."

Tiglao said it is up to Mrs. Arroyo to disclose what she had taken up with the four senators, who had reportedly banded together to bargain for their choice of committee chairmanships.

Flavier said yesterday the Drilon-Cayetano agreement may come to nothing because Drilon has offered the chairmanship of the powerful finance committee to Sen. John Osmeña, who is not a PPC member.

"(Osmeña) is good," he said. "In fact, he is the present chairman of the finance committee. The problem is we were all taken by surprise."

Flavier said Drilon must explain to other PPC members why he had offered the finance committee chair to Osmeña.

Flavier said the election of Drilon and Cayetano on Monday would have been a "done deal" had it not been for the commitment to Osmeña.

Flavier said if the row is not settled, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. would remain in his post, a scenario the PPC is trying to avoid.

The row could not be settled right away because Sen. Sergio Osmeña III is still abroad, he added.

Meanwhile, Guillermo Luz, executive director of the Makati Business Club, and Fr. Roberto Reyes, parish priest of UP campus in Diliman, Quezon City, said yesterday they were dismayed to learn that Drilon was "sleeping with the enemy" to bolster his bid to become Senate president.

Luz and Reyes represent the so-called "civil society" which had supported the overthrow of President Joseph Estrada and Mrs. Arroyo’s assumption to power last January 20.

Luz said "civil society" does not also approve of Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia’s "currying the favor" of the Nationalist People’s Coalition to ensure him the House speakership.

The "overkill" of Drilon and De Venecia has caused the leadership of the Senate and the House "to be very much in the air at this late stage," he added.

Meanwhile, Sen. Edgardo Angara, president of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) party, said yesterday he remains confident that he would get the Senate presidency on Monday.

"If there is an agreement, then there should have been no need for term-sharing," he said.

Angara said he has already sewn up 13 votes, the required majority in the 24-member Senate. — With Marichu Villanueva