Angara seeks election of new Senate head to avoid ‘vacuum’

The Senate would have to elect when sessions resume on May 31 a new leader whose term is not expiring on June 30 to ensure somebody will be in charge in case elections fail on May 10, Senator Edgardo J. Angara said on Sunday. Angara, a former Senate president who still has to finish half of his six-year term until 2013, noted that the terms of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Vice President Noli de Castro, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Prospero Nograles would all expire on June 30. This means nobody would be at the country’s helm after that in case of an election failure, he told dzBB radio. “It’s an imperative for the survival of the republic," Angara, an administration ally, said of the election of a new Senate president. Section 7, Article VIII of the 1987 Constitution states that "where no President and Vice President shall have been chosen or shall have qualified, or where both shall have died or become permanently disabled, the President of the Senate or, in case of his inability, the [House Speaker], shall act as President until a President or a Vice President shall have been chosen and qualified." "[If] we broke the succession line… there will be a vacancy, a political vacuum… There are suggestions that while the Senate is still whole, we should choose a new [Senate] president whose term does not end on June 30," Angara said. The Omnibus Election Code provides that in case elections fail, the Commission on Elections, acting on a petition, must hold another set of polls not later than 30 days. The senators whose terms will end this June 30 are Juan Ponce Enrile, Rodolfo Biazon, Pilar Juliana "Pia" Cayetano, Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, Richard Gordon, Manuel "Lito" Lapid, Jamby Madrigal, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Ramon Bong Revilla, Manuel Roxas II, and Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Enrile, Cayetano, Estrada, Lapid, Pimentel, Revilla and Santiago are all seeking reelection, while Biazon is running for congressman. Gordon and Madrigal are running for President, while Roxas is running for Vice President. Aside from Angara, those who still have three more years to serve are Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, Joker Arroyo, Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Gregorio Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, Loren Legarda, Francis Pangilinan, Antonio Trillanes IV, Manuel Villar Jr. and Miguel Zubiri. Aquino and Villar are running for President, while Legarda is Villar’s running mate as Vice President. Trillanes has been detained while facing rebellion charges. Last week, Malacañang floated the idea of a military takeover in case the country’s first nationwide automated polls fail. But it later backtracked amid allegations that a military junta’s purpose was to perpetuate President Arroyo in power. (See: Palace backtracks on possibility of military takeover) Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Saludo said Mrs. Arroyo, who is running for Congress in Pampanga’s second district, would step down on June 30 and give way to her successor. On her blog, journalist Ellen Tordesillas raised the suspicion that an election failure at the national level could benefit Mrs. Arroyo in case she wins in her district and is eventually named House Speaker — the fourth in the line of presidential succession. Enrile vs Angara On Sunday, Angara said he would not initiate the election of a new Senate president because he does not want to be accused of partisan politics by seeking to oust Enrile. "My main point is that the business community, the academe, education and other religious leaders should initiate [this] because they are the ones affected. If we [senators] make the move, the public will say we are after our self-interests," Angara said. Last January and February, talks were rife that the Senate minority bloc was attempting to oust Enrile in connection with his move to admonish Villar, whom he replaced as Senate president in 2008, over charges that the former businessman had unduly enriched himself and his realty companies over the C-5 Road extension project. (See: The C-5 extension controversy: An interactive map) The minority bloc was allegedly eyeing Angara as Enrile’s replacement. Enrile came out with a Senate committee report seeking Villar’s censure over the road project mess, but the report did not get enough backing, with Villar’s allies boycotting the last Senate session. (See: Boycott dooms Senate move to censure villar on C-5 mess) — NPA, GMANews.TV