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By Efren L. Danao Senior
Reporter
SENATE President Manuel Villar
said Thursday that the senators who had failed to oust him are
waiting for the opportunity to try another time.
“A coup will be staged as long
as they think it is possible,” he said.
But Villar is confident that he
would stay on as Senate president.
“It is very difficult to get a
majority,” he said.
The group supposedly plotting to
oust Villar must secure the support of 13 of the 23 senators to
succeed. The minority, who pitted Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. against
Villar, has only seven members, since the eighth, Sen. Antonio
Trillanes 4th, is still detained and cannot vote.
Villar said he started reaching
out to other senators after getting wind of the coup plot against
him from some opposition senators who had attended a caucus.
Villar is supported by 9
administration, 3 opposition and 3 independents. He said Wednesday
that as Senate president, he would not sit by idly while others plot
to unseat him.
Meanwhile, Sen. Mar Roxas denied
any knowledge of the alleged plot to unseat Villar.
“I am not aware of any such
moves. These are probably just jitters from an uneasy posture,”
Roxas said at the Kapihan sa Senado.
But he would not say that there
was no coup against Villar.
Roxas said that the very nature
of the majority coalition is conducive to internal tension. He
described the coalition of administration and opposition senators as
“half-betamax and half-VHS.”
He said that with this kind of
coalition, Villar would be dancing the tinikling.
Roxas was among the four
opposition senators who asked Pimentel to run against Villar. The
others were Loren Legarda, Panfilo Lacson and Jamby Madrigal.
Legarda denied that they were
looking at an equal playing field in 2010 in fielding Pimentel
against Villar, who is acknowledged as a leading presidential
aspirant. Sen. Francis Escudero, however, affirmed that this concern
for an equal playing field in 2010 was voiced by an opposition
senator in a caucus. Escudero did not identify this senator.
Pimentel said that had the
opposition pushed through with a straw vote for Senate President
before the convening of the Fourteenth Congress, he would have won
over Villar.
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