Vote instead for whoever GO and Opposition senators have decided (within the group) to support as Senate President.
Here are Chiz, Jinggoy, and Cayetano's contact infos:
Chiz Escudero 8346590
minorityoffice AT gmail.com
Jinggoy Estrada 5526716
senjinggoyestrada AT senate.gov.ph
Alan Cayetano 5526692
alancayetano AT yahoo.com
Gosh, I hope it's not yet too late.
Previous:
- Thanks to Villar, Administration will decide who becomes Senate President
- Sen. Roxas: "Whoever wins the senate presidency by courting the administration senators is clearly the real purveyor of division within the opposition ranks.”
UPDATE: The inside scoop from Lito Banayo:
In a bizarre twist of events, the die is cast for Manuel Villar, who will once more be chosen president of the Senate by his peers from the administration. Thirteen senators of the realm have affixed their signature in a resolution of support for the gentleman from Las Piñas.
The thirteen are Edgardo Angara, Joker Arroyo, Pia Cayetano, Juan Ponce Enrile, Richard Gordon, Lito Lapid, Ramon Revilla Jr., and Miriam Defensor-Santiago, previously and/or currently with the administration. There are two "independents" in the sense that they did not run as official candidates of either the Team Unity or the Genuine Opposition: Gregorio Honasan and Kiko Pangilinan.
These ten signatories were joined by three who ran, and won, in the ticket of what was called the Genuine Opposition: Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, and of course, the beneficiary of their support, Manuel Villar.
There is talk that no less than Jinggoy Estrada, who is abroad, also signed, or at least that is the claim of the spokesmen of the administration bloc. President Joseph Estrada forcefully denied this, and declared that his son Jinggoy will remain with the real, the true, the "genuine" opposition.
This writer was present when a consensus was forged at the Polk St. residence of the Estradas on June 9, when eight senators of the opposition agreed to give their support to Manuel Villar provided the opposition, numbering twelve, would be the majority in the Senate, and as such, would decide as a group who among the independents and the administration senators, if any, would be invited as part of that Senate majority.
Representing Panfilo Lacson who was then out of the country, I suggested that the senators present list down their committee preferences, two or three in order of premium interest, and that the same be given to Senator Villar for him to prioritize, as should be. The representative of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV wrote down the committee preferences of the latter. Koko Pimentel was present, although at the time, it was clear that his victory hung on the balance. Mar Roxas and Jamby Madrigal were not present, but in previous meetings of the senators-elect wherein they participated, they made known their acquiescence to having Villar re-elected Senate president, with the support of the full opposition. All declared that having been elected as opposition, or in the case of Roxas and Biazon, having chosen to side with the opposition on the matter of GMA’s "election", courtesy of Hello Garci, the majority, by right of numbers, should be the opposition.
Roxas who in previous meetings had expressed preference for Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel as president of the Senate, reconsidered his stand, and was willing by then to support Villar. It was also agreed in principle that Senators Pia Cayetano and Kiko Pangilinan, by reasons of unanimous consent, were to be invited to an avowed opposition majority composed of: recently elected or re-elected Villar, Legarda, Lacson, Escudero, Aquino, Alan Cayetano, Trillanes, and Pangilinan plus previously elected Madrigal, Pimentel Sr., Roxas, Estrada, Biazon and Pia Cayetano. That is a total of fourteen.
The administration senators would therefore constitute the minority: Angara, Arroyo, Enrile, Gordon, Lapid, Revilla and Santiago, plus Honasan the independent. The latter was a special case, to be accepted into the majority fold if he would agree, considering that such an agreement may have to be made by him only after a "nihil obstat" from his long-time mentor, Juan Ponce Enrile.
All these meetings were not happening under a Pollyanna-like political environment. The senators present were aware at the time that Manuel Villar had been conducting meetings with administration senators. Villar claimed to President Estrada that he did not initiate the meetings, but could not refuse to meet with fellows in the Thirteenth Congress, specially since he too was elected in 2001 under the administration ticket. Add to that of course, his ties with his bosom buddies in the Wednesday Group, most particularly Joker Arroyo, his senior by almost a generation.
It was in fact these meetings done without first calling to a meeting his new-found fellows in the Genuine Opposition that triggered some resentment which led to the possibility of running Nene Pimentel against Villar. To be fair, Pimentel was not aiming to be the Senate president, and would agree to being the opposition candidate only if the fear of a Villar collusion with the administration became evident.
Loren Legarda captured the dilemma facing the opposition in plain Tagalog, when on that June 9 meeting, in the presence of the detained president and the GO campaign manager, Senator Serge Osmena, she quipped, "Hindi tayo patatawarin ng tao kung matapos nilang iboto ang oposisyon, e ipamigay pa natin sa administrasyon and mayoriya. Kung sino ang nanalo, siya pang talo."
Simple arithmetic and plain logic. But as our article on Tuesday, "And the winners…lose?" stated, the worst fears have come to pass, if the resolution signed was indeed signed by the opposition personalities, and/or if the signatories do not review and possibly withdraw their signatures. The personalities of the opposition involved come from the House of Representatives, where signatures are traditionally treated as writ on toilet paper anyway.
It is now clear, and quite obvious, that Villar had sought support first from the administration bloc, and likely committed the key positions of Finance, Blue Ribbon, Foreign Relations and others to them, at the expense of the Genuine Opposition and its allies. The Senate Presidency at all cost, never mind the incongruity between principle and position. The irrepressible Miriam Defensor-Santiago confirmed so, and even provided details of the concordat.
One recalls how the Opposition believed up to the last minute that Villar could bring in his Wednesday Group buddies to their ticket. So that line-up was hostaged up to the last few minutes by Joker and Ralph and Kiko, remember? And when finally Villar confessed his inability to persuade the compromised, the GO had to scramble to fill up the two vacant slots, along with swallowing Kiko as a "guest" candidate. That scrambling fortuitously produced Senator Antonio Trillanes, thanks to an opposition-determined electorate, and despite the Ampatuans, the Bedols, the Sumalipaos and the Abaloses of this world.
Is this message, this vox populi, now lost in the minds and consciences of young Alan and young Chiz? Is personal friendship or party loyalty (as if political parties in the real sense, do exist) so precious that sleeping with the "enemy" is now so convenient?
Key to the finalization of the concordat between the opposition "few" and the administration "many" rests upon Jinggoy Estrada, and by inference, the detained president. If Senator Jinggoy signs into the group, then Chiz and Alan will find some "moral" excuse for the incongruity of bedding with the administration while deserting their fellows in GO. They can always say that if Estrada, the opposition icon, agreed, then they cannot be faulted. "Follow the leader", even if they blazed the trail themselves.
Our friend Serge Osmeña, who shepherded the GO to victory in the last campaign, rationalizes the "carambola" as part of the topsy-turvy culture bred by this stupid multi-party format we force to operate in a presidential system. Maybe so.
Better yet, the sense of what is right and wrong, of what is proper as against what is expedient.
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