http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100126com1.html
As the Senate committee of the whole (Scow) tackles its report on the C-5 controversy which found Sen. Manuel Villar guilty of unethical conduct, the Nacionalista Party presidential candidate said he will not be attending that session, since it is all about politics, and not about the truth.
He was quoted as saying: “Why should I face them? I don’t see any relevance on the truth. I have answered the issues on the floor and I have granted more than a hundred interviews. It’s on the Web site, and I have also placed an advertisement regarding that.”
Villar maintained that the inquiry into his alleged involvement on the C-5 road project was biased because those who composed the panel are either presidential bets or senators who backed out from the presidential race and are instead running for lower posts or for reelection.
He insisted that this Scow report is all about politics, saying that “they can’t force me to do what they want me to do,” stressing that he won’t dignify the Scow report with an answer.
This is a position Villar has taken from the very start. Instead of answering the issues raised at the Senate forum, he chooses to hold press conferences and interviews and places advertisements to give his side of the controversy. But it must be asked: If he says he has answered the issues and has given a hundred or so interviews and even conducted field trips with reporters on the C-5 issue, and if he believes that the issue is mired in politics but that the truth is lodged in what he says on the controversy, why then can’t he stand before his peers in the Senate, which is the proper forum, and provide the committee members directly with the same answers he has given to the media?
Even granting that the Scow report finding him guilty of unethical conduct with his and his corporations having benefited from the realignment of the C-5 road extension, is all about politics, with all the presidential candidates, as he claims, ganging up on him, why should politics have a bearing, if, as he claims, no such unethical conduct was committed, and no such road realignment brought about any benefits for him and his properties, or, for that matter, that there was no overpricing for the right of way?
If he has the evidence with which to disprove all the charges as stated in the Scow finding him guilty, then surely, he should not be afraid to face his peers in the Senate on this issue, and can explain it all, as he says he has explained this a hundred times in interviews.
The question then remains: Why does Villar refuse to face his peers and disprove these charges in the proper forum, which is the Senate?
It is no secret that Villar and his Senate supporters wanted to kill this Scow report and for him to get instant absolution on the controversy when he and his fellow senators came up with the resolution, said to have emanated from Villar’s office, long before the Scow report was even drafted.
It was precisely this Villar clearance resolution that got the gander of the Senate President and the other senators, as this was out of order, since the Scow report had not been drafted.
But it was clear that Villar wanted an end to the Senate ethics probe by having himself cleared first, which tends to show that he was afraid to face the Senate music mainly because he and his Senate allies would be hard-put to disprove the charges, as the Scow report appears to be well-documented, while Villar’s resolution merely clears him.
Such an absolution of Villar is much too reminiscent of the Mayuga report clearing all those police and military generals mentioned in the infamous “Hello Garci” tapes of any involvement of the 2004 presidential electoral fraud.
Then Insp. Gen. Mateo Mayuga had himself interviewed by only one TV station: Government TV, and he did not show any page of his report to the viewing public, merely reciting the conclusion absolving these police and military generals.
As we all know, Mayuga was promoted to the top Navy post.
Having taken the same stance taken by Gloria Arroyo and her allies whenever charges are aired against them, it is almost certain that a Villar presidency will be as opaque as Gloria’s, especially on issues of graft and corruption.
As Villar says, he won’t answer any and all charges.
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