Villar defies Senate on C-5

by Fel V. Maragay


The Senate committee of the whole yesterday wrapped up its public hearings on the complaint against Senator Manuel Villar for allegedly personally benefiting from the C-5 road extension project.

The hearings were terminated after Senator Jamby Madrigal and her lawyer, Ernesto Francisco, completed their presentation of witnesses.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, committee chairman, gave Villar until Friday to inform the panel whether he would submit proof to negate the testimonial and documentary evidence presented against him during several months of Senate investigation.

“Unless Senator Villar will notify the committee of the whole that he will be presenting evidence to controvert the evidence against him, the ethics case will be deemed submitted for consideration and resolution of the committee,” Enrile told newsmen.

The Senate president said the committee wroteVillar on Oct. 6 informing him that it was ready to receive his evidence in his defense himself. But he said the committee has received no reply from the respondent.

In a chance interview, Villar said he did not intend to present any evidence or witness to the committee.

“That is a non-issue as far as I am concerned. I have already said before that I will not participate in the proceedings of the committee of the whole. And I am standing by that decision,” he said.

The probe of Villar was triggered by the exposé of Senator Panfilo Lacson that the former allegedly caused a double funding of the C-5 road extension project by inserting P200 million for the project under the 2009 national budget on top of the P200 million already allocated by Malacañang for the same project.

When Madrigal filed a formal complaint against Villar, she raised other charges against him such as alleged diversion of the route of the C-5 road to pass through lots owned by him, alleged overpricing of his right-of-way claims for lots expropriated by the government for the road network and his alleged failure to divest himself of his shareholdings in the real estate firms that he formed.

Villar countered that the charges against him were fabricated and baseless and motivated by an intent of his rivals in the presidential race to discredit him.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said he has not yet conferred with Villar on the matter but added he would advise him to just ignore the committee’s request to submit counter-evidence.

“We should be consistent in the position we fought for ever since that we should not take part in the inquiry because we believe the rules were unfair and prejudicial to Mr. Villar’s right to due process,” Pimentel said.

With or without Villar’s counter-evidence, Enrile said the committee of the whole would decide on the case. If the respondent fails to respond to the committee’s report within the deadline, he said the committee would draft the investigation report during the recess of Congress and submit it for Senate approval upon the resumption of the session in mid-November.


Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNation.htm?f=2009/october/14/nation1.isx&d=/2009/october/14