Angara bloc to bare Senate President choice

Amid the race for the Senate presidency, Sen. Edgardo Angara on Sunday said his group would announce its pick for the position next Wednesday. "By Wednesday next week, mayroon na kaming consensus kung sino ang susuportahan namin (By Wednesday next week, we will have a consensus on who we will support)," Angara told dzBB radio in an interview. Angara's allies in the Senate include Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senators Loren Legarda, Gregorio Honasan II, Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, Ramon "Bong" Revilla, and Lito Lapid. Contenders in the Senate presidency — Senators Francis Pangilinan of the Liberal Party and Manuel Villar Jr. of the Nacionalista Party — need 13 votes to win. Under the 1987 Constitution, majority of the Senate was pegged at 13 because the number of senators was fixed at 24. Angara had earlier hinted he was hesitant to support Pangilinan, because the Senate's independence might be at stake. Pangilinan is allied with President Benigno Aquino III, the LP's standard bearer in the May 2010 automated polls. Villar communicates In the interview, Angara likewise said Villar himself had communicated with his bloc but did not disclose what Villar had told the group. "Siya mismo ang kumakausap sa amin (Villar himself talked to us)," said Angara. Villar already served as Senate president, but he resigned in November 2008 amid supposed threats to oust him. Re-elected Senator Juan Ponce Enrile took over the position, but his term as Senate president ended on June 30, 2010, when his previous six-year term as senator lapsed. Villar ran for president in the recently concluded elections, but lost to Aquino. Those in Villar’s bloc are Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Pilar Juliana Cayetano, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Joker Arroyo, and Ferdinand "Bong-Bong" Marcos Jr. Aside from those in the Villar and Angara blocs, the other senators are Sergio Osmeña, Franklin Drilon, Ralph Recto, Teofisto Guingona III, fugitive Panfilo Lacson, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada. —VS, GMANews.TV