Enrile confirms offers to head Senate anew

Amid talks of a possible deadlock in the race for the Senate presidency, acting Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Thursday confirmed that some senators are now rallying behind him to compete for the chamber's top post. Enrile said Senators Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, Gregorio Honasan and some others, told him that there is a "growing consensus" to elect him again as Senate president. However, he refused to name the other senators who supposedly approached. "They have talked to some senators on all sides. They said that if [I] take the job, it's possible that [I] can get more than 13 (votes)," Enrile told reporters during the weekly Senate forum on Thursday. A senator needs 13 votes to secure the Senate presidency. Enrile said senators from the Liberal Party are willing to support him because the ruling party's bet, Senator Francis Pangilinan, could not muster enough votes to bag the post. "The LP would vote for me simply because they realized that Kiko (Pangilinan's nickname) cannot muster the votes," he said. He likewise said that although no one from the Nacionalista Party (NP) has approached him, he thinks that the party's bet — Senator Manuel Villar — also does not have the numbers needed to become Senate president. No clear winner Senator Franklin Drilon had said that neither Pangilinan nor Villar has the 13 votes needed to secure the Senate's top post. Pangilinan has the votes of fellow LP members Drilon, Teofisto Guingona III, Sergio Osmeña III, and Ralph Recto. He also claims to have the support of Enrile and Senators Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, Francis Escudero, and detained Antonio Trillanes IV. On the other hand, Villar has the votes of Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Alan Peter Cayetano, Pilar Juliana Cayetano, Joker Arroyo, and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Those undecided are Senators Honasan, Sotto, Loren Legarda, Lito Lapid, Ramon Bong Revilla, and Juan Miguel Zubiri. They are identified with Senator Edgardo Angara's bloc. Sotto, however, had said that he and Honasan will support Enrile should he decide to compete for the Senate presidency again. Enrile's willingness Enrile said he will not persuade the senators to vote for him. "The truth of the matter is that I already told you before [that] I'm not seeking the position and I have not sought the position," he said. Still, he said he will accept the position if he gets the 13 votes needed. "I'm wiling to take it, although my preference is to not handle the job. If that is the consensus, [then] so be it," he said, noting that he will only do so if there are no "preconditions." Enrile said he has yet to personally talk to Pangilinan, Villar, and Angara. Enrile earlier told the Senate secretary that he would not sign any papers or make any decisions as Senate president after June 30, when his previous term as senator ended. He was reelected for another six-year term during the May 2010 elections. But after he made the directive, he said the secretary and the legal staff of the Senate submitted a legal study citing the Senate rules which say that the term of a Senate president begins on their election and ends when their successors are elected. Because of this, Enrile said he will continue with his work as Senate president until July 25, or a day before a new head of the chamber is elected. Enrile assumed the Senate presidency in November 2008 when Villar resigned because of lack of support from his colleagues in the chamber owing to the C-5 Road extension controversy. — RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV