Press Release
January 26, 2010

Will not give foes the satisfaction
VILLAR SHUNS ONE-SIDED FLOOR DELIBERATIONS

The floor deliberations on the C-5 road extension project at the Senate will have to continue without him, Nacionalista Party (NP) standard-bearer Sen. Manny Villar declared yesterday.

Villar said his Senate foes have tried hard but failed to drag him into the fray by recycling accusations that he benefited from the C-5 road extension project. He said his foes have become so desperate that they now resort to name-calling.

"I was called a coward and a copycat by some of my colleagues. But the truth is I have never evaded the issue. I have answered the issues they threw at me. I stood on the floor of the Senate two years ago to rebut their charges," Villar said.

"I have always faced the music. But I did not dance to their music and never will. I addressed the Filipino people directly about the C-5 issue. I am available to media to answer questions. My opponents want to make me a whipping boy to boost their political plans. Why should I give them the satisfaction?" the NP presidential candidate added.

Villar said he would also stay away from a looming vote on the Senate floor on the motion by his foes to censure him in connection with the C-5 issue.

He reiterated that the charges against him are all politically motivated. He said it was no coincidence that the C-5 controversy was revived at a time when his ratings were closing in on that of his closest rival, Liberal Party standard bearer Sen. Benigno Aquino III.

"Look at the cast of characters on the other side, they are candidates for president or their respective allies," he said.

Sen. Manuel Roxas III is Aquino's running mate while another accuser, Sen. Ma. Ana Consuelo Madrigal, is also running for the presidency.

"The Liberal Party panicked when they saw the surveys. They were the ones who leaked the committee report. It's obvious," Villar disclosed.

Villar had slashed Aquino's lead in the surveys by as much as 30 percentage points in less than three months. And in a one-on-one scenario, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) put Aquino's lead over Villar by a slim eight points in a survey conducted in December last year.

Villar also defended the C-5 project. "I am happy with the C-5 road project because it is now being used by six million of our countrymen from Cavite, Las Piñas, Parañaque, Taguig, and Makati. I had wanted to ease the traffic in our area and I was able to do that. And for that I am proud," he said.

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