Singit, Taga at Kapal=Villar

Senator Manny "Sipag at Tyaga" Villar told Inquirer editors yesterday that the Senate will not be able to expel him; despite overwhelming evidence of his violation of the Constitutional ban for Senators having fiduciary interests with government projects.

He said he'll continue endorsing infrastructure projects that would benefit his own companies. Ultimately, he said, his fellow senators will not be able to muster enough votes anyway to either expel him or reprimand him. So, nothing will come out of the Senate trial.

This proves, says the ebullient Senator, that the trial is just a "smear campaign", a "publicity stunt" engineered by the "presidentiables" against him. In fact, Villar even congratulated them for exposing his indiscretions in public because "the issue is helping my campaign."

Villar even said that the trial will be decided not on evidence but on numbers. For Villar, it's always political, and the fact that the minority, and that includes retiring Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and his sister, Pia, are still solidly behind him, he's confident that nothing will come out of this. Even Jinggoy Estrada who voted for the continuance of the ethics proceedings against him will not vote for his expulsion nor reprimand.

So, it's political numbers and not evidence, that will be the ultimate result of this Senate trial against Villar.

Expect this Senate trial to go the circus route since at this early, one of their members already told the public that he'll go scot-free.

This is a very dangerous precedent. Villar just proved that senators can do whatever they want, they can interfere with government projects and earn from it, and they can even do corruptive practices and again, escape from any prosecution since, in the end, it's P.R. or public relations that would decide their fate.

Now, what would happen to the 1.8 billion pesos of public money that went to Villar?