Drilon denies being behind moves to oust Enrile

Senator Franklin Drilon INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Franklin Drilon vehemently denied Saturday that he was behind an alleged plot to unseat Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, as senators prepare for the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Drilon’s fellow administration senators were similarly incensed by the coup rumor, which became prominent when Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Senate president pro tempore, spoke publicly about the matter on Thursday.

“I am not aware of this. I am not involved. I can swear on the Bible,” Drilon told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

Asked if he was not after Enrile’s position, he replied: “There is no discussion in the Liberal Party about any change in leadership. It’s not on the agenda. What else do you want me to say?”

Drilon’s fellow LP member, Senator Francis Pangilinan, described the purported attempt to oust Enrile as “simply loose talk.”

“No one has approached me and no one has discussed any coup plot with me,” he said in a text message.

Such was also the position of Senator Panfilo Lacson, also an administration senator who said, “The only possible power grab at this point would necessarily come from the administration party and I as an ally am a natural magnet for recruitment.”

“I have yet to hear at least one overture from them,” he added.

Talk of a Senate coup surfaced a month before the chamber formally begins the trial of Corona, who was impeached in a matter of hours last Monday by Mr. Aquino’s allies in the House of Representatives.

Estrada, an ally of Enrile, spoke of reports “that many senators want to become Senate president,” during a Christmas party for reporters covering the Senate last Thursday.

“But they will not get the position,” he said. “Manong Johnny [Enrile], I will never leave you.”

Lacson said it would be “unfair to every senator to even speculate on the matter of recruitment [for a Senate coup] in relation to the impeachment.”

“A great majority of us in the upper chamber are not for sale. That I can say with authority,” he said.

Said Pangilinan: “The Senate cannot be controlled by any one group and it would be extremely foolish for anyone to think that it is possible to do so.

“Conviction or acquittal in the impeachment trial should not depend on who is in charge or who presides, but on the strength or weakness of the evidence presented and the ability or the lack of it on the part of the prosecution to prove its cases.”

Both Pangilinan and Drilon had asked Corona to inhibit himself from cases involving former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who had appointed him to the position last year. Corono had served as aide to Arroyo while she was vice president and in the early part of her presidency.

Lacson said the coup talk was probably meant to “preempt any plan to oust Enrile by putting Malacanang and its allies in the Senate on the spot.”

“That’s what you call paranoia,” he said.