Allies ready to defend Villar on C5 mess during campaign

Allies of Senator Manuel Villar Jr. are prepared to defend him should Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile decide to make the C5 road project mess a campaign issue. "Kami naman ay handa doon kung gusto nila na debate dito (sa Senado) o debate sa kampanya OK lang kami. We are ready either way basta meron din kaming panahon o karapatan na sumagot sa kanilang paratang," Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. told reporters. (We are ready for them, if they want to debate it here in the Senate or during the campaign, as long as we have opportunity to answer their allegations.) Earlier, Enrile said he will bring the C5 controversy directly to the public if Villar's allies will prevent the chamber from discussing the issue in the plenary. “I’m ready to debate with them be it in chamber, outside [the chamber] about this report," Enrile told reporters. He added that if “they are not willing to discuss this report in plenary I will take this report to the people and discuss it publicly [and] make it a campaign issue. It is my duty to tell the people what I found." But on Wednesday, it was the majority bloc who asked for a ‘ceasefire’ to allow the senators to discuss the pending bills. [See: Ceasefire at the Senate’s C-5 warzones — for now] On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said the chamber will vote on the issue on Wednesday. [See: Senators to vote on C-5 report vs Villar on Wednesday – Zubiri] Timeline Pimentel said the minority bloc is amenable to the timeline as approval of urgent bills should take precedence over the committee report censuring Villar and a resolution absolving the senator from the charges. But if the case would be left hanging, it might be used by Villar’s opponents to make it appear he was guilty of wrongdoing, Pimentel said. "Sa palagay ko gusto nila mabitin ito para magamit na issue sa pulitika (They want to leave the case hanging in order to use it against him), I might be wrong pero yun ang aking impression (but that is my impression)," he said. Pimentel said the proceedings may take three days or more because there will be a good number of senators who may wish to interpellate Enrile, the sponsor of the committee report, and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, the sponsor of the resolution filed by minority senators exonerating Villar. He said the minority will block any attempt by the majority to railroad the adoption of the report and pronounce Villar guilty. In an interview with GMA's Unang Hirit earlier in the day, Enrile assured that the Senate will resolve the issue before it adjourns its session this week to give way to the campaign period which will start on February 9. Congress will resume its session on May 31. “Palagay ko pagbobotohan namin yan eh. Didispose namin yan, one way or the other, sapagkat matatapos na yung session namin. Wala nang panahon upang tapusin yan kaya malamang tatapusin namin dito sa week na ito," the Senate President said. (I think we will conduct voting this week. We will dispose it, one way or the other, because we will adjourn our session on Wednesday.) - RJAB/RSJ, GMANews.TV