Tough balance

What could have been a momentous event to wrap up their legislative stints, the five “graduating” senators lost the opportunity for their graceful exit. Before the 15th Congress adjourned sine die last week, Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile and Senate majority leader Vicente Sotto III resigned one after the other.

The upper chamber winded down sessions with Senate president pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada as acting Senate president following their rules of succession. But because of deep enmity amongst them, Estrada – who is Enrile’s staunchest ally – was nearly prevented from taking over as acting Senate president even only for one day.

Elder and much wiser senators purportedly prevailed upon feuding colleagues from further bringing down to the gutter their very own institution with childish tantrums against Enrile and his allies at the Senate. Frankly, however, it’s because the pro-administration senators still did not have the numbers to impose their will upon the majority.

Fresh from their near rout of the Senate race in the last May 13 elections, victorious pro-administration senators like re-electionist Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV reportedly wanted to install right away their Team PNoy campaign manager Sen. Franklin Drilon. The ranks of Liberal Party (LP) Senators were beefed up by the 9-3 victory of the Team PNoy in the last election.

As the highest elected LP, President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III says he won’t meddle with the election of the new Senate leadership in the 16th Congress. After the last election, the administration allies have already the required votes of more than 13 senators to help install Drilon as presumptive Senate president.

Drilon who has already declared his every intention to become Senate president anew, however, indicated he is in no hurry. Drilon obviously would rather wait to be installed as Senate president by the incoming 16th Congress.

Saying repeatedly he has “been there and done that,” Drilon knows how it feels to lose the Senate presidency. He had to reluctantly give up the Senate presidency to honor a gentleman’s agreement of term-sharing with the late Senate president Blas Ople in 1998.

Drilon reportedly led cooler heads to reason and calm down nerves of his colleagues. Some of whom were allegedly enraged by the parting shots of Enrile in his ultimate privilege speech as Senate president.

Enrile challenged all the senators, including him, to subject themselves to the audit of their controversial maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE). He was denounced for unequal distribution of the Senate’s annual savings and rechanneled as additional MOOEs to favored senators.

So instead of ending their sessions on a high note, five “graduating” senators ended their second and last term in office without going through the traditional ceremonies for outgoing legislators. The five are, namely, Senators Edgardo Angara, Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr., Joker Arroyo, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, and Panfilo “Ping” Lacson.

As part of tradition, each of the five “graduating” senators would have been conferred with Senate resolutions citing their individual accomplishments during the twelve years they served the legislature. Of the five, veteran lawmakers Angara and Villar deserve such special citations for both having served as Senate president. Angara served as Senate president during the 9th Congress from 1993 to 1995. Villar was Senate president during the 13th Congress from 2006 to 2008.

Although both Angara and Villar bowed out formally from the Senate, their respective successors in office, newly elected Team PNoy senators are no strangers to them. Typical of political dynasties in the Philippines, Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara takes over the Senate post of his namesake father. On the other hand, former Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar assumes her husband’s Senate slot.

And also for the last time, each of them was supposed to deliver their respective “valedictory” speeches at the Senate floor. Only Angara and Villar were able to deliver though their respective “valedictory” speeches last Wednesday night after Enrile took the thunder away with his irrevocable resignation as Senate president.

Perhaps it is fresh in the mind of 89-year-old Enrile how both Angara and Villar were ousted as Senate president in Senate coups against their leaderships. Enrile was one of the regular members of the Senate when Angara and Villar were voted out of the Senate presidency. It was Enrile who was elected Senate president after Villar was ousted in November 2008.

Enrile perhaps vividly remembers also how he was the Senate minority leader when former Senate president Jovito Salonga was unceremoniously removed in a tumultuous Senate coup during the last few weeks of the 8th Congress.

Actually, Enrile first offered to resign as Senate president amid rumored ouster plots against him. This was after he separately tangled with Trillanes and Cayetano on two different issues. So before he could be unseated in similar coup fashion, Enrile jumped the gun on them.

Thus, Enrile could pride himself in having been elected and served as Senate president for three congresses from the 13th to the 15th but never ousted.

In his dramatic departure as Senate president, Enrile partly blamed the failed Senate bid of his son Cagayan Rep.Jackie Enrile on the attacks on him by his embittered Senate colleagues. The elder Enrile felt sorry for unwittingly inflicting the attacks on his son who landed 15th and missed the “magic 12” winning circle in the last election.

This early, the so-called “macho bloc” in the chamber is already grooming Enrile to become Senate minority leader. So Enrile is not bowing out without grace. He is returning to his favorite fiscalizer role in the remaining half of his term ending in 2016.

Incidentally, this coincides with the remaining three years in office of President Aquino. This early, a number of leaders in the 16th Congress have moist eyes on the next presidential elections in 2016. And most of them are pro-administration senators.

While P-Noy may have control now of both chambers, he still has to deal with personal ambitions of his whip masters in the 16th Congress. At the opposite end, Enrile and his allies will stand in their way. Thus, P-Noy’s priority legislative agenda hangs in a tough balance.