13th Senator

Outgoing Akbayan Party-List representative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquiel who lost in her senatorial bid under the Liberal Party (LP) could only wish she could still make it at the Senate. She was out of the Magic 12 winning circle at the just-concluded May 10 elections and specifically landed at the 13th place.

The Akbayan Congresswoman got 9.041 million votes and trailed very close to fellow LP Senate bet, Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona Jr. who got 10.2 million votes that earned him the 12th and last slot in the Senate.

The incoming 24-man Senate in the 15th Congress would have one vacant slot with the election into office of LP Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III as the next President of our country. Once officially proclaimed, Aquino would be the 15th President of the Republic. Since there is no such provision in the country’s laws to fill in this resulting vacancy, there is no automatic 13th Senator.

Like Baraquiel, when President Arroyo first ran for public office as Senator in May 1992, she was also the 13th Senator. She got 5.8 million votes. She trailed behind Sen. Freddie Webb who was at 12th place with 5.9 million votes. She tried but failed to claim the 12th slot after she lost her election protest against Webb.

But the election in 1992 was when voters elected 24 members of the Senate to pave the way for the transition in Congress. The Senators who landed in the Top 12 have six-year terms in office while the other half served only for three years. This was to phase in the Constitutional requirement that empowered the Senate to operate as a continuing body in Congress.

Unlike Baraquiel, Mrs. Arroyo made it to the Senate. However, because she was the 13th Senator, she, along with the half of the elected Senators from 14th to 24th places served for three years only instead of six years. It was a sweet revenge for Mrs. Arroyo when she ran for re-election and topped the Senate race in the May 1995 polls.

The number 13 is also crucial in the upcoming battle for Senate leadership. To be elected by his peers as Senate president, a Senator needs at least a simple majority vote, or half of the Senate members which is 12 — plus one or 13 Senators. After all, the Senate president is the third highest-ranking official of the land in the line of succession next to the Vice President.

With opposition Senators Panfilo Lacson and Antonio Trillanes IV out of action at the Senate, there are only 21 Senators who would actually vote the new Senate President.

From what’s coming out in media, there are at least five Senators reportedly casting moist eyes to become the Senate president. The five Senators in alphabetical order are Edgardo Angara, Franklin Drilon, Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Manny Villar — all gearing up for the Senate presidency race this early. Angara, Drilon and Villar have been at one time elected as Senate presidents.

Villar may become Senate president anew with at least 13 Senators reportedly expected to back him up. Villar who is the president of the Nacionalista Party (NP) counts on his own party-mates and natural allies at the Senate who will likely support him led by his losing vice presidential running mate Sen. Loren Legarda.

Villar’s NP partymates include the brother-sister team of Senators Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano, and newly elected Senator, Ilocos Norte Gov.Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Villar can count on his ally, Sen.Joker Arroyo and Sen.Miriam Defensor-Santiago who won as NP “guest” candidate in her re-election bid. There is also Sen. Gregorio Honasan who endorsed Villar’s presidential bid.

Although he lost to Aquino in the presidential race, Villar remains an astute politician and kept the doors open to a possible coalition with the latter’s LP. For being the first to concede defeat to Aquino a day after the election, this augured well for Villar’s working out a coalition between his NP and Aquino’s LP.

Villar is reportedly holding talks with former House colleague, Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. who won in his return bid to Congress as LP bet. Belmonte is also making a comeback bid as Speaker of the House in the next Congress. The NP and LP are consolidating their forces at the Lower Chamber in support of Belmonte’s speakership bid against President Arroyo as the incoming Lakas-CMD-Kampi Congresswoman from Pampanga.

Drilon and Pangilinan, both LP party-mates of Aquino, are up against each other as the LP bet to the Senate presidency. None of the two LP stalwarts has indicated giving way to the other. The two are obviously engaged in their own respective back-door negotiations with their fellow Senators aside from Senators Guingona and Ralph Recto who are both from LP and Serge Osmeña III of PDP.

With no party, independent Sen. Escudero declared he is not actively seeking the post but won’t certainly back down this time if the challenge comes his way. While he supported Aquino during the presidential campaign, he, however, junked LP vice presidential bet Sen. Mar Roxas II who happens to be the LP chieftain. Thus, Escudero's bid to becoming senate president is doomed.

Angara, who is the lone surviving LDP at the Senate has not made any secret of his desire to wrest the Senate leadership from Senate president Juan Ponce-Enrile at the height of “failure of election” scenario bandied earlier by those against the automated elections last May 10.

The swing votes that will decide the Senate leadership will come from Senate president pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada and Enrile who are both from PMP and comebacking Sen. Tito Sotto III (NPC) and the three Lakas members, namely Senate majority leader Miguel Zubiri, Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. and Lito Lapid.

In the meantime, both chambers of the outgoing Congress are back in sessions starting today. They will also convene as a national canvassing body to formally tally the final results and proclaim the winners of the presidential and vice presidential elections. From now until the next Congress convenes for the maiden state of the nation adress of the newly-installed President, all eyes are set on who might be the 13 Senators or more perhaps, to deliver the vote for the new leader of the Senate.