Charge Villanueva now, groups demand

Has Senator Joel Villanueva, having joined the Senate majority bloc led by Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, escaped the fate that befell Senator Jinggoy Estrada?

The question was raised Friday as several groups challenged the Office of the Ombudsman to file a criminal case against Villanueva over his alleged links to the multibillion-peso flood control scandal.

“That is why we are here at the Ombudsman — to remind them of what they said, that a case was already prepared against Villanueva,” Christian Ancheta of the Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) said.

SPARK and the Oriang Women’s Movement picketed at the gates of the Ombudsman and accused the agency of stalling cases against those either close to the Marcos administration or those it can use politically.

“He (Villanueva) has switched sides and all, and they (the Ombudsman) have yet to put him in jail along with the other co-accused,” Ancheta said, apparently referring to suspended Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and former Sen. Bong Revilla.

Revilla and Estrada are detained without bail on plunder charges, with Estrada saying he was charged by the Ombudsman after he refused to leave the group of senators seen as allied with Vice President Sara Duterte.

Villanueva recently provided the 13th vote that allowed Gatchalian to assume the post of Senate president. Last week, Sen. Chiz Escudero provided the Gatchalian bloc with its 12th vote.

Escudero and Villanueva have been linked to the multibillion-peso flood control scandal, as have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Expelled Representative Zaldy Co and 18 of his bodyguards claimed to have delivered billions of pesos in supposed kickbacks from anomalous flood control projects to the residences of Marcos and Romualdez.

Ancheta said the recent leadership row in the Senate was intended to distract the public from the issue of corruption. His group suggested that the Senate realignment may have been a factor for the delay of the cases.

“The public now views the constitutional body as having been weaponized by the Marcos administration to facilitate the establishment of a new Senate majority and to secure the senators’ votes in the impeachment case of Vice President Sara Duterte,” SPARK said.

The group claimed that the primary beneficiary of the developments in the Senate is the Marcos administration.

The group also criticized the new Senate majority for accepting a senator facing corruption allegations in pursuit of political objectives.

“It is clear that the recent shakeup in the Senate was driven by the political ambitions of senators who are teaming up and switching sides to confuse the public. It is clear that their interest is the upcoming elections,” he said.