Press Release
March 24, 2010

Transcript, Fernandina Media Forum at Club Filipino, Greenhills, San Juan

(On whether Senate President Enrile should be replaced) Failure of elections will not happen in the country. Our elections do not need majority plus one equals the winner. For instance, we have 50 million voters - the Constitution does not require the winning presidential candidate to get 25 million votes plus one. Plurality lang ang ating patakaran. In other words kung sino ang mas maraming boto, iyon ang mananalo.

If there are some voting machines that will fail in Luzon, some that will fail in Mindanao, some in the Visayas, but others will function. And the results can be made the basis for proclaiming the winner. Those who do not believe in the results can go through the usual way of protesting.

And therefore, on the issue of whether the Senate president should be replaced, luging lugi ako diyan hindi dahil sa failure of elections but because mayroon kaming maraming disgusto ni Senate President Enrile. Sa madaling salita gusto ko siyang matanggal doon. But that is not for me to decide. In fairness to him, mapapalitan lang si Sen. Enrile kung may session ang Senado at pipili ng kanyang kapalit. But the Senate cannot also be called into session by itself. The l4th Congress should be called to a special session by the President, but there is obviously no time for that because the congressmen are campaigning. So there will be no quorum.

What will happen? In all likelihood, Sen. Enrile will stay on as Senate president until the elections are over. In which case hindi na siya magiging Senate president sa susunod na Congress unless he is elected by the Senate.

That is the situation. And I want to emphasize na hindi kami nag-uusap ni Sen. Angara o kung sinumang ibang senador diyan. Baka sabihin ni Sen. Enrile na may plano na naman ditto na ma-unseat siya. There is no such thing. Nabasa ko na lang ang opinion ni Sen. Angara at sinusundan ko ang scenario of failure of elections. Hindi mangyari iyan.

(Is it true that authoritarian ang pagpapalakad ni Enrile) That is the reason why I don't want him to be the Senate president because he tends to divide instead of unifying . Kasi authoritarian nga ang kanyang patakaran.

(Example) Sa Senate investigation of the C-5. Noong una, sumali kami roon. We raised several objections kung bakit ang ethics committee ay hindi puwedeng sila ng magdadala ng imbestigasyon dahil mas marami ang mga nakaupo doon na karibal ni Sen. Villar. So how can he be given a fair judgement in a tribunal that will be composed of his rivals?

Pangalawa, ibinato na nila ang inbestigation sa Senate committee of the whole. Patuloy din an gaming demand na palitan natin ang rules in investigating C-5 because the rules that apply to the Senate ethics committee which is composed only of a few people cannot apply to the Senate committee of the whole which is composed of all senators.

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