Press Release
May 27, 2009

Santiago joins peers expressing support for Enrile
as Committee of the Whole chair

And then there were fifteen.

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago added her voice to the chorus of senators who have reiterated their vote of confidence for Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile for him to continue serving as chairman of the Senate Committee of the Whole investigating allegations of "conflict of interest" against Sen. Manuel Villar.

In a letter to Sen. Mar Roxas, who presented Resolution 1095 signed by 14 senators to Enrile Tuesday, Defensor-Santiago said she was joining her colleagues in asking Enrile to stay on as chairman of the Senate Committee of the Whole.

"This authorizes you to affix my signature to the 'confidence' resolution in favor of Sen. Enrile as chair of the Committee of the Whole, provided that the following remarks shall appear near my name: 'Concurring on the need to avoid personalities,' Defensor Santiago told Roxas in her letter. Santiago was not present when the resolution was passed around the Senate Tuesday.

Members of Santiago's staff said the lady senator had hoped that the Senate investigation on the ethics complaint of Sen. Jamby Madrigal against Villar should be conducted on the basis of the merits or demerits of the evidence presented with less political bickering or mudslinging possible.

On Tuesday, Roxas presented to Enrile Senate Resolution 1095 urging the Senate President to continue presiding over the proceedings of the Committee on the Whole looking into the complaint against Villar.

Those who signed the resolution were Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Senators Edgardo Angara, Benigno Aquino II, Rodolfo Biazon, Francis Escudero, Richard Gordon, Gregorio Honasan, Panfilo Lacson Jr., Lito Lapid, Loren Legarda, Jamby Madrigal, Bong Revilla, Miguel Zubiri and Roxas.

On Tuesday morning, Enrile requested that he be excused from presiding over the Committee of the Whole and offered to give the task to Estrada.

Enrile had offered to resign as chairman of the Committee, noting that he wanted "to maintain the good name of the Senate, to restore its sullied image, to maintain its independence, to make it a bulwark and guardian of our liberties and to work for the benefit of the people."

He said that because of the attacks against him personally which also affected the Senate, "I feel it is in the interest of the Senate and myself and the proceedings of the Senate Committee of the Whole that my fate as Chair of the Senate Committee of the Whole be decided in the Senate Plenary which, in the first place, installed me as such."

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