The Wutz Up in the Philippines!

Pia Cayetano

Excited, Pia Cayetano sent a Twitter message on Monday afternoon that she was about to bike to her precinct in Bagumbayan, Taguig to cast her vote. However, her next tweet was one of frustration.

“I was not able to vote! Supporters of our opponents in Taguig started hurling invectives at my brothers and throwing punches at them,” her tweet read.

Cayetano said her brothers Ren and Lino were waiting patiently in line when Dante Tinga’s followers started “harassing” them.

On the other hand, former barangay chairman Francisco Javier, a Tinga follower, filed physical injuries and malicious mischief charges against Senator

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MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said she joined the Senate boycott last Wednesday to block alleged attempts to pass two controversial bills and not to show solidarity with Sen. Manuel Villar, who could have faced censure from his colleagues in the majority for the C-5 road controversy.

The two bills seek to reorganize the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

“I am chair of the economic affairs committee, and I was never consulted on either bill. I would certainly have protested a vote on the floor this afternoon, because they have worrisome provisions,” she said.

“For example, like the pending immigration bill, the Pagcor bill seeks to grant security of tenure to the head of office,” she said.

Santiago said that reorganizing the NTC would have far-reaching consequences, because the agency has control over importations of signal jammers that could disrupt the operations of poll automation machines, cell phones, radios, and other tools for telecommunications.

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MANILA, Philippines - The Senate adjourned session yesterday without a vote on the Committee of the Whole’s report on the C-5 road controversy involving Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Manuel Villar Jr. as he and his allies in the minority did not show up.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, and Senators Jamby Madrigal, Richard Gordon and Rodolfo Biazon assailed the apparent “boycott” by Villar and his allies.

They said their absence compromised other pending bills as well as the Blue Ribbon Committee’s report on the national broadband network controversy, which held President Arroyo, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and other officials accountable for the overpriced project.

Absent at yesterday’s last session aside from Villar and Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. were Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Loren Legarda, Edgardo Angara, Joker Arroyo, Manuel Lapid, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

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Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile blasts Sen. Manny Villar while Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano defends his partymate during deliberations on the C-5 report yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines - Allies and critics of Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. squared off yesterday over the ethics case against him during an emotional and tension-filled floor debate. Villar snubbed the session.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile lashed out at the absent Villar, standard-bearer of the Nacionalista Party, for not facing his colleagues to explain the ethics case against him in connection with alleged road project anomalies, particularly the C-5 road extension.

In a report, the Senate Committee of the Whole chaired by Enrile said Villar should be censured for failing to divulge his real estate companies’ interests in the Las Piñas-Parañaque link road and the C-5 road extension projects.

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