It's all about Cha-cha

If push comes to shove, former Senate president Manuel Villar Jr. showed tormentors from among his colleagues he is no pushover. In a rare public display of outburst, Villar finally broke his silence over the alleged “double insertion” in the 2008 budget to provide funding for his pet project — extending the C-5 road network.

Villar admitted he has been hurting in his quiet solitude all these time since the allegations against him were first hurled in September last year by fellow opposition leader, Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson. Another opposition Senator, Jamby Madrigal denounced Villar’s real estate properties located along the way of the C-5 road project that were directly benefited. These allegations have cost Villar’s losing his post in the ensuing Senate leadership coup instigated by Lacson, et.al.

Adding insult to injury, the Senate Ethics Committee went to Lacson in the subsequent Senate reorganization and the first case he attended to, was the allegations against Villar. The poor boy from Tondo showed he could also dish out as much as an ex-top cop could swing at him.

A day after he took the Senate floor to confront his accusers where he was previously maligned, Villar was still visibly seething when he sat with us yesterday during our regular Tuesday Club breakfast gathering at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City. This, I sensed while he kept stirring vigorously the straw of his glass filled with diet Coke while fuming over the manner by which he was being portrayed as a corrupt Senator.

What riles Villar most was the fact that no less than the Senate committee on finance chaired then by now Senate president Juan Ponce-Enirle, has already investigated the alleged “double-entry” complaints of Lacson and Madrigal. From their own Senate hearing, it was established there are really two different projects — a flyover in Sucat and another one in Coastal Road.

The controversial C-5 extension project is a 55 km.-long road network that traverses from Cavite to the cities of Muntinlupa, Paranaque and Las Piñas that will cut down travel time all the way to Quezon City. Thus, he explained, each of the Congressmen from these areas — Reps. Roilo Golez and Ed Zialcita (from the two districts of Parañaque City), Rep. Ruffy Biazon of Muntinlupa City and Villar’s wife, Rep. Cynthia of Las Piñas City have in fact, contributed their respective congressional insertions in the budget for this particular section of the C-5 project in Sucat.

Villar pointed out that his supposed “double insertion” of P200 million for the C-5 project title was a blatant result of “katangahan” (stupidity) by those who denounced it without first checking their facts. The other P200 million outlay for the C-5 project is for the Coastal Section of this road extension network. This portion of the C-5 road, he lamented, has been stalled by this wrongful appreciation of the facts.

For all the brouhaha it has created in the Senate, I am very pleased, though, to see that the construction of the C-5 project section that was funded by Villar’s P200 million insertion is progressing. In fact, the flyover that cuts across the Sucat Road or Dr. A. Santos Avenue along the SM Sucat in Parañaque City was already installed last Sunday. If that’s a case against Villar, then he should commit more such insertions in the budget if only we could finally see a completed road project in this part of Metro Manila.

A Congressman for three consecutive terms and served at one time as House Speaker, Villar told me, he has encountered so many political attacks and fought it as a decent parliamentarian. But being served with a notice of a Senate Ethics Committee Report right at the floor about his supposed guilt even before a hearing could be conducted smacked of gutter kind of politics.

That’s why, he said, he decided enough is enough! He has tried to maintain peace among his fellow presidential aspirants in the Upper Chamber who also happen to be members of the Senate Ethics Committee. But the attacks against him are destroying the integrity of the very institution — that is the Senate he has been trying to protect and preserve.

Villar maintains the whole thing is all about Charter change. What on earth has this got to do with Cha-cha? Why did he suspect it this way, I asked Villar. While the Senators are up against each other’s necks, Villar noted, the largely pro-administration Congressmen are busy with Cha-cha bills they are tackling at the House.

This is why, Villar stressed, he does not trust repeated avowals by Palace officials “there will be elections in 2010” to belie persistent talks about President Arroyo being extended into office. As long as President Arroyo is the acknowledged leader of the coalition parties, Villar sees a scenario where she could very well stay longer in office through “transitory” provisions that his allies in Congress would put into the amendments of the 1987 Constitution.

Certainly, I don’t think Lacson would be working as Cha-cha agent of Malacañang Palace to push this at the Senate. What would Lacson gain if he is able to divert the attention to Villar, which will definitely be a temporary passing issue with the looming revival of the Dacer-Corbito case against him?

If we were to believe Villar’s suspicion, this bitter wrangling among them Senators would serve to bolster the public opinion in support of Cha-cha initiatives of the administration. He believes the Palace have not yet given up to ram Cha-cha through Congress that would, among other things, call for the abolition of the Senate with the shift to a parliamentary system of government.

Hence, Villar cautioned his fellow presidential aspirants at the Senate from falling all over the place on a non-issue like their row over the Senate Ethics committee report on the C-5 complaint against him. As of yesterday, the Senators have reportedly decided to call a “ceasefire” among the chief protagonists on this drama.

Villar is groomed by his own Nacionalista Party (NP) to be their presidential standard-bearer in the May 2010 elections. From his last count, Villar noted there are as many as 20 candidates now who have declared their bids in next year’s presidential race. This number is growing by the day as more claim to hear God’s calling them to run also for the presidency.