MANILA, Philippines?Senator Francis Pangilinan has asked Senator Panfilo Lacson to inhibit from the hearings of the ethics case filed against resigned Senate president Manuel Villar.

Pangilinan made the call on Thursday after Lacson was named by newly-installed Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile as the next chairman of the Senate ethics committee.

Lacson, who had linked Villar into the alleged irregularity in the double appropriation for the construction of the C-5 road extension in Parañaque City, would replace Senator Pia Cayetano.

Former congressman Gilbert Remulla, spokesman of Villar?s Nacionalista Party, criticized the choice of Lacson as head of the committee.

?He?ll have a snowball's chance in hell,? Remulla said.

?Talk about the lack of ethics -- he, as a proponent of the complaint against Villar, should have been the first to refuse the post as it is clearly a conflict of interest. Unless, of course, ambition and scorn has clouded judgment,? he said.