When the battle lines are drawn and the smoke in the battlefield has cleared, Sen. Manuel Villar, a former Senate President and President of the Nacionalista Party (NP), is it. He has practically sewn up the Senate Presidency.

This was revealed Tuesday by Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, one of the winners for a seat in the 24-member Senate who ran under the NP Senatorial Slate of Villar.

Santiago said that candidates for the Senate Presidency “are mistaking their dreams for reality and will wake up on July 26 and see the truth.’’

July 26 is the opening of the 15th Congress. The election of Officers in the Senate and the House of Representatives such as the Senate President and the House Speaker is held in the morning of July 26. President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy’’ Aquino III delivers his State of the Nation Address in the afternoon of that day.

Any of the candidates – Senators Villar, Francis Pangilinan of the Liberal Party (LP) and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile of the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) -- needs a minimum of 13 votes to win the race for the Senate Presidency.

Santiago said that based on her intelligence feedback, Villar most likely completed the list of 13 senators after the May 10 elections “and not recently.’’ Villar lost to Aquino in that Presidential Election.

She told Senate reporters in a patched telephone interview that Villar has talked to some of the senators while these legislators were abroad.

Pangilinan told the Manila Bulletin during the oath-taking in Mandaluyong City of re-elected Sen. Jose “Jinggoy’’ Estrada last June 24 that he was confident of having 13 votes “in two to three weeks.’’ The magic number to get elected as Senate Chief is 13.

That was before the LP chose him last week and not Sen. Franklin M. Drilon as the official party bet for the Senate Presidency. In that LP Press Conference announcing that it was Pangilinan who was chosen the official LP bet, Pangilinan estimated that he had nine votes in his pocket.

Santiago stressed that the race for the Senate Presidency is like a game of poker where there is a huge amount of bluff and that the winners could only be known when they show their cards.

She said it is very possible that those in Pangilinan’s list are supposedly the same as in Villar’s list.

Angara earlier said that his group will meet July 15 to decide whom to support. He categorically stated that he is not interested in seeking the Senate Presidency. He was the Senate President in the 1993-1995 period.

Santiago saw the claims of candidates of having sewn up the race for the Senate Presidency as mere noises and propaganda to convince people to make decisions to join such candidate.

She said her signature on Villar’s list could be the third or fourth and “I was told others have already committed.’’

“Tahimik lang si Villar,’’ she said. (Villar is keeping silent on this issue.)

“He doesn’t even want to tell you anything,’’ she added.

She admitted that the issue of committee chairmanships had been discussed. She did not elaborate. There are less than 30 standing committees in the Senate.

A senator who is aiming for the Presidency of the Republic would aim for high-profile committees such as the Senate Blue Ribbon committee which acts like a magnet to media coverage, she said.

Santiago was the Chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations and Economic Affairs Committees.