Senators warned vs leaking committee report on Villar case

Senators who would leak the committee report on the ethics complaint filed against Senator Manny Villar Jr. even before it is presented to the plenary may end up facing an ethics probe themselves, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile warned Wednesday. "I covered the copy [of the report] that was sent to them with a letter cautioning them never to reveal the contents of the report until it is formally submitted to the Senate [plenary]. We should keep that as confidential," Enrile told reporters. Enrile, chairman of the Senate committee of the whole, said the report is still being routed for the signatures. The committee finished drafting the report last month. Enrile said he is not aware who among the senators or how many of them have already signed the report. “When I signed the report, I left it to my people to route it with instruction never to discuss the contents or show it to anybody except to senators," he said. “Now, if any senator will leak the contents of the report, then that will be the responsibility of the senator concerned because I have given the instruction that the contents of the report must not be made public until it is formally presented to the Senate as a committee report," Enrile added. Any committee report is considered unofficial until it has been presented before the plenary and signed by the committee members. Reso clears Villar Last November, 12 senators signed a resolution urging the committee of the whole to clear Villar of his alleged involvement in the C5 road extension project controversy. But Enrile stood his ground that time, stressing that the committee will come up with a report based on the evidence presented to it. Villar’s camp had refused to submit evidence to the committee. [See: Enrile clueless about Villar's clearance in C-5 road mess] "Let the record stay that way and let the public judge which of the two reports is correct," Enrile said then. In 2008, Senator Ma. Ana Consuelo “Jamby" Madrigal filed the complaint against Villar and accused him of realigning the C-5 road extension project to benefit properties registered in the name of corporations that he and his family own and control. There was also supposedly a conflict of interest on Villar’s part when he did not divest himself of interest in corporations whose properties were acquired by the government for road right of way for the Las Piñas-Paranaque road. Both Madrigal and Villar are running for president in the May 2010 elections. - Amita Legaspi/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV