Palace keeps hands off reported Senate coup

Malacañang maintained a hands-off stance on Wednesday in connection with a supposed attempt by some senators to oust Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile from his post. Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the Palace treats the Senate as a co-equal branch of government and will not comment on the matter. "Yan ay internal nang pinag-uusapan sa Senado. Ayaw namin makisawsaw riyan at ayaw namin sabihing nakikialam kami (That is an internal affair in the Senate. We do not want to interfere). That is their internal affair, we don't want Malacañang to be involved in any maneuvering in the Senate," Bello said in an interview on dzXL radio. "Alam mo naman, independent, co-equal co-constitutional body ang lehislatura (You know the Senate is an independent, co-equal and co-constitutional body)," he added.

Newspaper reports on Wednesday said that senators allied with Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. attempted to stage a coup against Enrile on Tuesday. But the supposed plot failed after a member of the majority bloc being wooed to help in the alleged move to oust Enrile bared the plan. Enrile chairs the Senate committee of the whole that tackled an ethics complaint against Villar for alleged conflict of interest in C-5 Road extension project. The committee report found Villar guilty of unethical conduct and called for the refund to the government coffers of P6.22 billion spent in the road project. [See: Senate panel to Villar on C-5: Return P6.22-B fund to govt] However, the report was not tackled on the floor on Tuesday due to a lack of quorum. [See: Senate fails to tackle Villar report due to lack of quorum] - LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV