Villar offered Zubiri term-sharing deal on Senate presidency, says Bato

Senator Cynthia Villar has offered a term-sharing agreement on the Senate presidency to Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa disclosed Tuesday.

“Open naman si Senator Cynthia ng term sharing. In fact, nag-offer siya noon pa, nag-offer siya ng ganoon. I’m not sure with Migz kung okay sa kanya pero kay Ma’am Cynthia is okay naman siya mag-term sharing,” Dela Rosa, who is backing Villar’s Senate presidency bid, said in an interview with reporters.

(Senator Cynthia is open to a term-sharing agreement. In fact, she offered it before. I'm not sure if Migz is okay with it but Ma'am Cynthia is open to having a term-sharing deal.)

Villar and Zubiri are among the senators who are reportedly vying for the Senate’s top post.

In an interview last week, Zubiri refused to comment on sharing terms with the other contenders for the post, but when asked again about the possible deal, the Senate majority leader on Monday said senators have yet to discuss the matter and some of his colleagues are already opposing the idea.

So far, Dela Rosa said there are eight of them in Villar’s bloc who are pushing for the latter’s Senate presidency bid.

“Yung solid na mama bear ay walo. Walo kami,” Dela Rosa said.

The group is composed of Dela Rosa, Villar, Senators Bong Go, Francis Tolentino, Imee Marcos, Ramon Revilla and Senators-elect Robin Padilla and Mark Villar.

According to Dela Rosa, Villar had already discussed her bid for the Senate presidency to him and the other members of their group before the May 9 national and local elections.

Zubiri talked about his plan to vie for the post after the elections.

Dela Rosa said he had already committed his support to Villar but “it doesn’t mean that the other one is less of a leader than the other.”

“Pareho silang magaling. Pero nauna lang kaming nag-commit dahil nga sa nauna kaming kinausap,” he explained.

(They are both great but we already made a commitment because she discussed the Senate presidency to us before we talked with Zubiri.)

“Yung sa amin naman kasi, 24 lang kaming senador ang pangit naman kung para kang yung loyalty mo ay napaka-weak. Pag nag-commit ka, mag-commit ka. Pangit naman kasi kung palipat-lipat ka dahil porque o-offeran ka ng magandang committee dito sa kabila, lilipat ka.  Sa akin, it’s more of loyalty as a friend, nakapagbigay na ako ng word ko sa kanya,” he added.

(It would look bad if we will show that our loyalty is very weak. Once you commit to a person, you should be true to your word. It might leave a bad impression if we will shift our loyalty just because someone offered a committee to us. Personally, it's more of loyalty as a friend.)

While he said that both contenders are experienced enough to lead the chamber, Dela Rosa said he is backing Villar because she is a “sincere” person.

“Sincere siya na tao. At kapag kinausap…kapag sinabi niya gagawin talaga niya. Yun yung hanap natin na leader na totoo pag kausap. Hindi yung masyadong politiko. Iba yung sinasabi, iba yung ginagawa,” he said.

(She is a sincere person. She is true to her word. That is the characteristic that we are looking for in a leader. Someone who is not too political or someone who will say a thing but will do the opposite.)

Dela Rosa said the mastery of rules is not really an edge as parliamentary procedures are all “scripted.”

“Kung experience ang pag-uusapan, pareho naman sila ng experienced eh at second term—patapos na nga si Sen. Villar di ba? Alam ko meron kayong question diyan about experience about parliamentary procedures…lahat naman yan ay scripted, nakasulat na yan basahin mo lang, kaya kayang kaya naman yan lahat,” Dela Rosa said.

(In terms of experience, I believe both of them are experienced Senator Villar is already on her second term as senator, right? I know you will raise the issue of experience about parliamentary procedures but all of these are scripted. These are all written in the books and you can just read it anytime. Everybody can do that.)

As earlier reported, Dela Rosa said the groups of Villar and Zubiri will discuss the Senate leadership in the coming days.

“It’s up between the two of them kung anong mapag-usapan nila, dapat sila talaga ang mag-usap, kami naman e, ‘yung dalawang grupo na yan hindi magkakalaban, pareho naman kaming supportive to the incoming administration of [President-elect Bongbong Marcos], so dapat mag-unify, mag-unify ng dalawang grupo para magkakaroon ng supermajority kasi kung magmamatigasan hanggang sa magkakahatian talaga, then we will be forming a very big minority bloc. Kung sino yung matalo, pupunta talaga sa minority,” he said.

(The discussion will be up to them  because both groups are not rivals, both are supportive of the incoming administration of BBM. So the groups should unify so we could form the supermajority. If not, then we will be forming a very big minority bloc. Those who will lose will belong to the minority.)

GMA News Online sought reaction from Villar and Zubiri but has yet to receive a response.—LDF, GMA News