Senate in no hurry to unseat Villanueva

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Joel Villanueva will get to keep his post – at least for this week – as the Senate committee on rules takes up the dismissal order issued by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III,  chairman of the rules committee, said he would call for a meeting with panel members next week to discuss the dismissal order.

After the meeting, Sotto said he would consult with the Senate as a whole on how to proceed.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said on Monday that he received the order of the ombudsman as early as Nov. 2 but decided against immediately acting on it.

The ombudsman gave Pimentel 30 days to submit a compliance report on the dismissal order.

Pimentel, however, said there should be a resolution of the motion for reconsideration filed by Villanueva first, so he referred the matter to the rules committee. 

“There’s no need to rush action on this. There’s no urgency really on terminating a sitting senator,” Pimentel said.

The Office of the Ombudsman ordered the dismissal of Villanueva for his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam linked to businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

Villanueva has denied the allegations, saying the signatures in the documents presented against him were forged.

Villanueva lamented yesterday the ombudsman ignored or glossed over evidence he previously presented that proved he was innocent of the charges.

The senator was referring in particular to a report of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that stated his purported signatures in the documents disbursing his pork barrel funds were forged.

Villanueva said one document showed him using the letterhead of the Buhay party-list group of which he is not a member. Villanueva was representative of the Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) party-list group.

He also pointed out that another document claimed one of his staff, a certain Ronald Samonte, facilitated the illegal transactions.

Villanueva said a simple check with the records of the House of Representatives would show he did have a staff with that name.

“They (ombudsman) never really touched on those glaring fakes and omissions,” Villanueva said.

Villanueva said he would exhaust all legal options apart from his earlier filing of a motion for reconsideration.

He said he is considering questioning the jurisdiction of the ombudsman before the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court.

Rep. Harry Roque of party-list group Kabayan said only the Senate can discipline and remove Villanueva.

Roque, who is a lawyer, said the dismissal is an administrative penalty arising from the senator’s alleged misuse of his pork barrel fund when he was a congressman representing CIBAC.

“Senator Villanueva, so the ombudsman holds, is being punished for his participation in a P10-million scam involving the use of his pork barrel when he was a party-list congressman. Hence, the question arises: may the ombudsman, in fact, order the Senate to do so?” Roque said.

He said the ombudsman’s order is in conflict with the Constitution, which provides that each chamber of Congress may “punish its members for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its members, suspend or expel a member.”

“The provision is clear: only the Senate has the power to determine the fitness to hold office of any of its members. What this means is that the ombudsman’s dismissal order will still go through a vote by all the members of the Senate to be implemented. And the threshold for an affirmative vote is two-thirds of all its members,” he said.

Roque added the controversy might reach the Supreme Court.

“If and when the matter is brought up to the high court, this will certainly be an opportunity for it to further clarify the meters and bounds of the powers of our Office of the Ombudsman as a constitutional body,” he said.

On the other hand, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it would leave it up to the Senate to decide on how to fill the vacancy in the event Villanueva is convicted in the pork barrel scam.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body would have to wait for a directive from the Senate if there is a need to conduct special elections. 

“As prescribed by the process, we will have to wait for the Senate to declare a vacancy before we can do anything,” he said.

Villanueva garnered the second highest number of votes in the May 9 senatorial race.

Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal explained the 13th placer in the senatorial race, who happens to be former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino, will not take the seat in the Senate to fill any vacancy.

“It is not possible because the 13th placer did not win in the elections. And also, the ombudsman’s order does not mean Senator Villanueva’s winning in the election had been nullified,” he added.