MANILA, Philippines--Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. Saturday said he was backing Sen. Manuel Villar over all the other presidential hopefuls in the opposition.

Pimentel said character and courage were what he looked for in a future president, and that he liked what he heard when Villar discussed his platform during a forum they attended in September at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC.

“I think he’s a good man. The charges against him were proven to be not true,” Pimentel said of Villar at the Kapihan sa Sulo forum.

He added that the Senate resolution calling for the dismissal of the ethics complaint filed against Villar in connection with the C-5 Road extension project, and which was signed by 12 senators including himself, was a political response to a “politicized” investigation.

Pimentel, a veteran lawmaker and opposition stalwart is not a member of any political party, having resigned recently from the Partido Demok-
ratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan.

Needing ‘seasoning’

Villar was No. 1 in the surveys for presidential aspirants until Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III came into the picture.

But Pimentel said he found Aquino, the only son of the late former President Corazon Aquino and a first-term senator, in need of “seasoning” and “maturing.”

He also said Joseph Estrada could be disqualified from running because the Constitution bars the reelection of a former President—a stance that clashes with that of his son and namesake, who is serving as Estrada’s lawyer.

As for the other presidential aspirants, Pimentel expressed the belief that no one among them, including the administration standard-bearer, former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, had a chance to win.

On the spot

Pimentel also said that since the resolution clearing Villar was signed by 12 senators, it might be difficult for the Senate committee of the whole, which had conducted the inquiry into the C-5 Road extension project, to get enough votes to pass a report finding the latter liable.

“I wonder where they will get the signatures. Twelve signed ours ... We have put them on the spot, I know, but we did that because what started as a legal question has become politicized,” Pimentel said.

The resolution is in abeyance until the committee of the whole comes up with its report. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada had earlier said he would withdraw his signature, but maintained that he believed Villar to be innocent of the charge that he benefited from the road extension project.

According to Pimentel, the resolution was not intended to preempt the release of the committee report, and is just expressing the lawmakers’ sentiment that the probe had turned up nothing against Villar.

He said he also believed that the inquiry was being used to derail Villar’s planned run for the presidency.

“The issue was politicized. We came up with a political response also,” Pimentel said.