Minority will see to it that Villar is accorded due process

Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today expressed the hope that Senator Manuel Villar can be persuaded to cooperate with the probe of the complaint against him with the decision of the majority senators to transfer such task from the ethics committee to the Senate committee of the whole.

During the first meeting of the committee of the whole today, Pimentel said the minority senators will press for the adoption of rules and procedures that will ensure that Villar's right to due process is fully protected.

"What I plan to do, since we will talk about the rules, is I will try to see to it that the rules to be adopted will be fair. That is my first function as minority leader and I am not going to shirk away from that responsibility," he said.

It is only when the rules of fairness and impartiality are in place that the subject of the investigation can be expected to cast away his resistance to the process.

Pimentel said he has not yet talked with Villar over the matter but added that "we will sit down and discuss it rationally."

He said the senators will also try to resolve whether to open the proceedings of the committee of the whole to the media and to the public.

Pimentel stressed that the minority is not saying that Villar should be spared from the investigation because there is a need to know the truth behind the allegations against him.

"Sen. Villar has already said he will answer all the allegations against him and he is not afraid of his accusers," he said.

But Pimentel said what Villar is most apprehensive is that the investigation may turn out to be a charade, wherein he is already prejudged as guilty specially by his colleagues who are trying to pin him down on account of their rivalry in the presidential race.

"If there is no guarantee of due process and fair play, can you blame him for trying to avoid the investigation?" he asked.

Pimentel said if he and his peers in the minority bloc are defending Villar, it is because his rights should be protected as he corrected the impression that they are "lawyering" for him.