Newsbreak: Who split the Senate opposition bloc - Roxas or Villar?

Who really broke the fragile united front of the opposition in the Senate? The camp of presidential hopeful Manuel “Mar" Roxas insists it was Senate President Manuel Villar, but the latter will tell it was actually the Liberal Party (LP) boy from Roxas City. The version of the story that has been reported in newspapers is that while the opposition bloc was still discussing their vote for Senate president and negotiating for the committees they preferred to chair, Villar turned around and talked to administration senators to clinch their support. Roxas’s group was said to have wanted to negotiate for the post of Senate president, but agreed not to challenge Villar anymore in exchange for giving the opposition the first crack at the committees. Villar’s camp has an interesting version of what happened. Roxas, they claim, was the first to turn his back from the opposition when he secretly met with a Malacañang emissary for a possible coalition with administration senators so Roxas could be elected Senate president. Naturally, Villar moved to protect his post. Roxas explained that his colleagues in the opposition knew about his meeting with the Palace emissary, but the talks didn’t prosper after his fellow oppositionists rejected the proposal. He said Villar knew about this, that’s why they were shocked that Villar ended up playing footsies with the administration senators. However, a former senator who knows about the negotiations says Roxas is not being forthright. As early as the campaign period, when Villar was busy working on his reelection, Roxas was already busy undermining the Senate president. Sometime in March, Roxas went to former President Joseph Estrada’s rest house in Tanay, Rizal, supposedly to convince the opposition figurehead to withdraw his support from Villar as Senate president, the ex-senator said. Just how determined—or desperate—was Roxas? Well, he reportedly joined Estrada for a drink, something uncharacteristic of the health-conscious senator. Ah, what politicians would do in the name of ambition! - Newsbreak