Sitting as the presiding judge in the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, Enrile’s competent handling of one of the biggest legal events in the country assures the public that whatever the decision of the senator-judges, whether Corona would be acquitted or convicted, Philippine democracy would be enriched.
Enrile was very much part of the two-decade Marcos regime in various capacities in the department of justice,finance, and defense.
The 15th Congress opened today electing Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino as senate president and Quezon City (4th district) Rep. Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. of the Liberal Party as speaker of the House of Representatives.
Enrile, dubbed as “unity” senate president, obtained 17 out of 20 votes of senators belonging to Liberal and Nacionalista Parties, including Sen. Manuel Villar, who ran for president in the last May elections and was investigated by the 14th Senate under Enrile for alleged overpricing on the C-5 road extension project.
Enrile defeated Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano of the NP who automatically becomes the Senate minority leader. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was voted Senate President pro tempore . Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III was majority floor leader and chairman of the Senate committee on rules.
Belmonte got 227 votes over Albay Rep. Edzel Lagman (Lakas-Lampi-CMD) who got only 29 votes. Lagman will share the position of House minority leader with Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez.
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.
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.
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.
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.