SENATOR Thomas P. Villagomez admits that he was a key player in the recent aborted coup in the Senate.
“Yes, I was the one. I was trying to get Sens. (Ramon S.) Guerrero and (Pete P.) Reyes to meet with Sens. (David M.) Cing and (Jose M.) Dela Cruz. But when we met here on Saipan, it was only…Cing and the (three Saipan senators). And that’s only four (and we still needed one member). So we agreed not to talk to the media about the composition so that we can have the opportunity to sit down with Sen. Dela Cruz and know whether he was really in favor of reorganizing the Senate,” Villagomez, R-Saipan, said.
Villagomez said he did not plan to become the next Senate president. He said what he really wanted was to change the “old practice of following the whims of one senatorial district to be able to get its vote for the passage of a budget.”
“I sure wanted to align with one senatorial district either Tinian or Rota but not so much to hurt the other district. We have a tendency here over the Legislature that if Tinian is in need of a million dollars, we have to cough up $2 million so that we can give also another million dollars to Rota to accommodate the votes. And I don’t think that we should continue that pattern. We should give money based on one island’s needs and purposes not in exchange for votes,” he said.
After Villagomez described his role in the failed “coup” as that of an “observer,” Reyes, R-Saipan, and Guerrero, American-Reform-Saipan, called for a press conference to criticize their colleague’s “untrustworthiness.”
Villagomez yesterday said that they were secretly trying to reorganize the Senate “so why should I disclose to the public (what was basically still a) plan?”
