CEBU CITY, Philippines ? Senator Richard Gordon denied that Senator Edgardo Angara was the emissary sent by Senator Manuel Villar in the purported attempt to bribe him into withdrawing from the May 10 presidential election and withdrawing his support from an ethics report finding Villar in conflict-of-interest in the C5 road project.

But Gordon, standard-bearer of the Bagumbayan party, offered even more damaging information against the Nacionalista Party?s Villar, alleging that the bribe offer was practically the equivalent of a ?blank check.?

?The emissary is not Senator Angara?that?s definite,? he told reporters in a chance interview at the Waterfront Hotel here. He described the emissary as a businessman who used to work in government.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile earlier ?surmised? that it was Angara who served as ?emissary? to convince Gordon to withdraw from the presidential race.

Gordon earlier alleged that the emissary, upon instructions from Villar, also wanted him to withdraw his signature from the Senate committee of the whole report censuring Villar over the C-5 road mess.

Besides the campaign fund reimbursement, he said he had also been offered a Cabinet post should Villar win the presidential race.

Gordon said one thing that stood out in the offers made by the emissary was Villar?s supposed willingness to repay all his campaign expenses whatever they might cost.

?The hook there was the withdrawal (because) that?s where the money would come from,? he said.

?The suggestion was to extend the withdrawal up to the last (minute), as much as I wanted it, so the (amount to be reimbursed) would be bigger.?

Asked if the offer was tantamount to a blank check, he said: ?Practically. They were that desperate.?

?The objective was not my withdrawal in the campaign because he had always said that he had a lot of money. The objective was to protect himself from (the) C-5 (report),? he added.

With the supposed offer made last Jan. 19, he pointed out that he would have had a little less than four months worth of campaign expenses to be reimbursed by the billionaire Villar?in case he acceded.

?When an offer is made, I perish the thought right away. I don?t even consider it because I don?t want to be tempted,? he said.

Gordon called public attention to how exactly Villar had amassed his wealth, which purportedly enabled him to make the huge bribe offer to him.

He said Villar benefited from the P42 billion the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. borrowed from the Social Security System, Government Service Insurance Corp. and Pag-ibig from 1988 to 1994.

He said the government was left shouldering the burden left by some 53,000 bad loans.

?He has a history,? he said of Villar. ?If this is pieced together, he is living on a deck of cards. He?s covering his tracks.?