Press Release
April 26, 2009

Minority presents memo on ethics panel's handling of Villar case

Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today cautioned the majority in the Senate against preempting the proposals of the minority bloc to resolve the flaws in the ethics committee probe of the complaint against Sen. Manuel Villar.

Pimentel criticized Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile for his public statement that he will not allow the majority to be dictated upon by the minority with regard to its demand for a revamp of the composition of the ethics committee. He said this in effect implies outright rejection of the minority's suggestions even before it could submit its memorandum or position paper to the Senate president today as had been agreed upon during the caucus last Tuesday.

"We have not yet submitted our memo, and yet it appears that Manong Johnny has already made his decision," he said in his radio program "Pimentel Reports" over RMN-DZXL.

"It's like what happened at the ethics committee. Even before the committee had met, there was already an order signed by some of its members."

He was referring to the order signed by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, committee chairman, and three members - Richard Gordon (vice chairman) Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Gregorio Honasan a day before the committee actually met April l5.

Villar was directed by the committee to answer the charges against him within five days upon receiving the order. The committee supposedly concluded that the complaint against the former Senate president in connection with the controversial C-5 road project was "sufficient in form and substance."

Pimentel said the Senate leadership should not show an adverse attitude toward the position of the minority on the issue because both sides should find a way to sort out the problem by seeing to it that the rules and procedures of the committee in conducting investigation are faithfully complied with.

At this stage, he said the matter of the guilt or innocence of Mr. Villar is not at issue. He said what the minority is questioning now is the procedural process because "due process has been interpreted by our courts as not only substantive due process but also procedural due process."

"In other words, even as we are in the minority, we do not think that the issue of changing the chairmanship and membership of the ethics committee should be decided by the sheer number of the majority overwhelming us. We are appealing to their sense of delicadeza and fairness. That is why we are bringing it for the decision of the Senate as a whole," the minority leader said.

"We believe that the ethics committee should be ethical above all in its procedures. In our memorandum I emphasized that ethical considerations are never arbitrated by numbers."

Commenting of Villar's refusal to submit himself to the jurisdiction of the ethics committee, Pimentel said that is his right if he believes that most of its members, who are his rivals in the presidential race, are biased against him and disposed to nail him down.

Cognizant of Villar's objection, Pimentel said the minority bloc is requesting for the removal of Lacson as chairman and his fellow presidentiables as members of the committee.

He said the issue could not be settled by the majority asserting its numerical superiority because it transcends partisanship.

News Latest News Feed