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Tag: Senate coup

The morning after:Senate coup revisited

by Lito Banayo
Malaya

Speculations and spins always fly whenever something takes everyone by surprise. Thus did the Senate “coup” which replaced Manuel Villar as its president with 84-year old Juan Ponce Enrile come to most everyone.

One paper bannered an Erap hand in the coup, banking only on the supposed membership of Enrile in the latter’s party, and the perceived “closeness” of the two, which isn’t exactly true. They are friends, but they are not that close. Even when only the two of them survived the Cory juggernaut in the first elections under the 1987 Constitution that re-installed a two-chamber Congress, they were not that close. Estrada, who tries to be friendly with everybody, and forgives anyone and everyone at the drop of a tear, fake or feigned, knew the political value of the wise Ponce Enrile, so that even if the latter did not support his presidential run in 1998, he reached out. He needed the cooperation of the Senate, and so politically, he bedded even with other unlikely political “friends” as Miriam Defensor Santiago. That paper cited an “administration senator” as its source, but the guy, who can easily be identified by any political observer, was also just speculating.

Blessing in disguise

Hindi ginusto ni Manny Villar na matanggal sa pagka- senate president ngunit maaring makakabuti pa sa kanyang political career itong nangyari.

Alam naman natin lahat na may plano si Villar na tumakbo para presidente sa 2008. Kaya nga siya kinukuyog ng ibang may ambisyon rin kasi bilang senate president, may lamang siya. Hindi lamang sa budget ng senado kung di na rin sa media mileage dahil lahat na nangyayari sa senado, dumadaan sa kanya. Nababanggit ang pangalan palagi.

Ngayon na hindi na siya senate president, hindi na masasabi ng iba pang presidentiables – Senators Ping Lacson, Mar Roxas at Loren Legarda – na lamang sa kanila si Villar.

Lessons for Arroyo in Senate coup

Senator Panfilo Lacson told ANC after Juan Ponce-Enrile was sworn in as senate president after Manny Villar resigned, that “Nothing is spontaneous here in the Senate. These things are planned.”

To recall, Villar, who was re-elected as senator in 2007 under the Genuine Opposition ticket, was installed as senate president last July with a vote of 15-7 by what was described as a “mongrel” majority that included all of Malacañang allies. Given that kind of support base, Villar has been doing a delicate balancing act between Malacañang’s interest and the public’s expectation for the Senate to do a fiscalizing role to the Arroyo administration’s brazen violations of the Constitution.

Although initiated by four opposition senators – Lacson, Loren Legarda, Mar Roxas and Jamby Madrigal, Villar’s ouster last Monday was made possible when the very same people who were his allies just more than a year ago abandoned him.

Villar ousted as Senate president; Enrile sworn in

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile was sworn in this afternoon as the new Senate president in a coup that caught Senate President Manuel Villar and his allies by surprise.

Enrile, whose oath of office was administered by Sen. Gregorio Honasan Jr. at 4 p.m. when the chamber opened its plenary session, was supported by administrator senators and several senators, including Sen. Rodolfo Biazon.

Following Villar’s ouster, Senators Francis Pangilinan and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. resigned their posts as majority and minority leaders.