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Senate panel to Villar on C-5: Return P6.22-B fund to govt


The Senate will ask presidential aspirant Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. (Nacionalista Party) to return to the government the P6.22 billion his company allegedly “gained" through illegal means from the construction of the C-5 road extension. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, chairman of the committee of the whole that probed the case, said this is only one of the sanctions meted on Villar that are included in the committee report, which he would sponsor on the floor Tuesday. The P6.22 billion, according to the 84-page report, was the amount “Villar made the Filipino people suffer" for the benefit of his corporations. Villar is the ninth richest Filipino in 2009 with a net worth of $530 million, according to Forbes Magazine.
Aside from demanding the return of the money, the committee also recommended that Villar be censured for engaging in improper and unethical conduct as a senator, and for damaging the integrity of the Senate. Enrile will sponsor the report on the floor after 12 senators signed the document. He, however, clarified that this does not mean the 12 have agreed with the committee’s findings. “They can sign but as far as the voting is concerned, that is another matter. [The signature is] only to bring the matter to the floor for discussion," he said, adding that once the matter is taken up on the floor, the senators can deliberate on it and vote if they agree with the recommendation. The senators, however, cannot amend the recommendation and suggest a heavier penalty, such as suspension or expulsion, for Villar, according to Enrile. For the sake of headlines Villar’s party, meanwhile, defended their embattled standard bearer. Gilbert Remulla, NP spokesperson, said the release of the report was clearly about politics and not about truth. “The conclusions reached in the report were not consistent with the transcripts of the proceeding or the evidence that were presented," he said. “It was all about the headlines that it would grab and the sound bites they could produce in this week of data gathering for the next nationwide survey and at the time when Senator Villar has closed the gap between him and his closest rival," he added, referring to Liberal Party standard bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III. Remulla said the release of the report – a draft copy of which was earlier leaked to the Philippine Daily Inquirer – only betrays the desperation of Villar’s rivals. The case stemmed from the ethics complaint filed by Sen. Ana Consuelo “Jamby" Madrigal, another presidential aspirant. “With the report we sense the desperation in the rivals of Senator Villar for the presidency and their fear of a truly independent leader who will fight for the poor in our beloved country," Remulla said. Findings The report stated that there is substantial evidence that Villar is a major stockholder of Adelfa Properties Inc, which owns Golden Haven Memorial Park and Azalea Real Estate Corporation (now Britanny Corporation), and was the proponent of Las Piñas-Parañaque Link Road project and the government's C-5 road extension project. It said the road projects were made to pass through the properties of the corporations of Villar following a curved, instead of a straight, alignment. It also said that the alignment of the C-5 road extension segment of the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway Project had to be changed just to accommodate the alignments of the Las Piñas-Parañaque and C-5 extension projects. Villar's corporations allegedly received road right-of-way compensation and still have unpaid claims. It said the properties of Villar that were acquired were given zonal valuation for different areas, thus increasing the compensation due them. It also said that Villar failed to avoid a conflict-of-interest situation by not divesting himself of his shareholdings or interest in the mentioned corporations. It added that Villar used his power to satisfy the interest of his corporations. - KBK/JV, GMANews.TV

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