Hypocrisy

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:57:00 04/18/2009

MANUEL VILLAR JR. joins the mixed ranks of senatorial predecessors Ramon Diokno, Jose Avelino, and Sergio Osmeña Jr. who had to face colleagues to answer charges that they had violated laws and government ethics to an extent that warranted suspension or expulsion from Congress.

The first, Diokno, was a case of out-and-out partisan persecution: in 1946, NP senators Diokno, Jose Vera and Jose Romero were denied their seats on the basis of their allegedly committing "fraud and terrorism."

The second is, perhaps, the most interesting - affecting as it did, a former Senate president, too. On Feb. 12, 1949, President Elpidio Quirino advised Senate President Avelino to resign because of scandals concerning his Senate and Liberal Party presidencies. This was after an eavesdropping reporter named Celso Cabrera claimed to have heard Avelino indignantly reply, "What are we in power for?"

A case of legislative sleight-of-hand - rather reminiscent of the manner by which Villar, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives, accomplished the transmittal of impeachment charges against Joseph Estrada to the Senate - toppled Avelino on Feb. 21, 1949. Rowdy demonstrations marred the opening of the Senate’s session, in which an exposé of Avelino was expected. Avelino tried to gavel silence. When what was either a gun or a firecracker went off, Avelino abandoned the rostrum and, with supportive senators, fled the scene.

The remaining 12-man rump of pro-Quirino senators promptly ousted Avelino and replaced him with Mariano Jesus Cuenco as Senate president. Their action was upheld by the Supreme Court and was followed in March 1949 by Avelino's suspension from the Senate for one year. (One of the consequences of the Quirino-Avelino split was the first impeachment effort ever attempted against a Philippine president.) However, when Avelino failed in his bid against Quirino for the presidency later that year, the two patched up their quarrel and Avelino’s suspension was lifted in time for Quirino’s proclamation as president.

The third, involving Osmeña Jr., took place in 1960. Osmeña was not yet a senator then, and was merely a congressman. He was suspended for delivering a privilege speech criticizing President Carlos P. Garcia’s veto of an anti-graft bill. His suspension, enforced by a Nacionalista-controlled House, lasted 15 months.

Who can forget that Villar maintained a prudent silence in the Senate while signaling his wife, Cynthia, to join impeachment efforts in the House of Representatives? And who can forget the passionate and indignant rhetoric of the impeachment efforts against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, with opposition stalwarts – like Villar’s Nacionalista partymate, Alan Peter Cayetano - thundering that the President should confront the charges, and not hide from a House investigation or Senate trial?

And who can forget the long string of mental reservations and equivocations boiled down into sound-bites by the beleaguered administration? That what was taking place was not a search for the truth, but a political vendetta? That the motivating factor behind the moves of Cayetano et al. was neither justice nor accountability but publicity in aid of election? That the Palace trusted the courts but mistrusted the patently political processes of the House and Senate?

Yet today the formerly pro-transparency and accountability nabobs of the Nacionalista Party and its allies indignantly proclaim the Senate ethics committee a “kangaroo court,” denounce the investigation into Villar’s allegedly using political office for private, real estate-related gain, as "politics," and shrilly allege a prejudging of Villar's case.

But looking into Villar’s supposed double allocation in the C-5 road project is only one such necessary inquiry: there’s the complaint against Senator Richard Gordon in connection with his “dual position” as senator and chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross; and there remains the question of who among the senators allowed Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya to participate in an executive session with former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri during the ZTE-NBN deal investigation.

We could ask: Why didn’t these prosper during Villar's Senate presidency? But more aptly, we do ask: What does Villar fear, when he himself has said that the C-5 scheme was "a very good project which I boast about" and that he was "sure five million of our people from Cavite, Las Piñas and Parañaque will learn to appreciate the project in time"?