Press Release
April 27, 2009

Enrile says nobody can compel Lacson
to inhibit himself from ethics committee

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile turned down anew the demand of the Senate minority to revamp the composition of the Senate Ethics Committee and pointed out that nobody, not even the Senate President, can compel committee chair, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, to inhibit himself from hearing a complaint against Sen. Manny Villar.

"Nobody can force anybody to inhibit himself," Enrile told the Kapihan sa Manila this morning. "(That decision) is a matter of personal responsibility and your assessment of yourself whether in that situation you can � maintain your impartiality to render justice to the respondents. It's a personal thing."

Enrile said even in the Judiciary, judges cannot be forced to inhibit themselves from pending cases. "It's the same thing in Congress, inhibition is personal."

At the same time, Enrile defended Lacson's chairmanship of the ethics panel, saying it was incorrect to say that he (Lacson) was the complainant in the case against Villar in the alleged double entry of the P200-million fund for the construction of the C5 road project.

"It is not correct to say that Lacson is the accuser and the judge at the same time," Enrile said, adding the complaint was filed by Senator Ma. Ana Consuelo Madrigal.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. had criticized the Senate President for allegedly siding with the Ethics Committee by refusing the Minority's call to overhaul it. But Pimentel said they are still submitting their memorandum on the matter in the hope that the Majority would be convinced to side with them.

The Minority bloc is seeking to overhaul the composition of the Ethics Committee under Lacson, which last week found a complaint against Villar sufficient in form and substance.

Enrile explained that during the Senate hearing on the Philcomsat case by the Committee of Public Enterprises, he decided to inhibit himself from the investigation because his family had business interests in the company involved.

"The people under investigation, through their lawyers, ask that I inhibit myself. I inhibited myself. But that was personal to me," Enrile said. "The chairman and the members of the committee could not force me to inhibit myself. So nobody can force Senator Lacson, not even the Senate President, to inhibit himself."

Enrile recalled that during the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the C-5 road case, it was Lacson who raised the issue on the alleged double entry of funds for the road project and the accusation was not directed to Villar but the Department of Public Works and Highways.

In that hearing, Enrile said, it was Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya who admitted that Malacañang put the first P200-million fund in the 2008 national budget and he did not know who allocated another fund for the project.

Enrile said it was he who named Villar as the one who asked the Senate finance committee to "allocate" P200-million fund for the road project. "Ako bilang chairman ng finance committee, sinabi ko na that was an amendment of Senator Villar [I, as the then chairman of the finance committee, told them that the allocation was an amendment of Senator Villar]," Enrile said.

He said that he believed the double insertion issue was not the only matter that was included in the complaint of Madrigal. "That was not the only thing being investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee, there were other ethical issues," Enrile said.

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