Disqualification case vs Koko Pimentel ‘nothing personal’ — lawyer

Atty. Ferdinand Topacio. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The lawyer who filed the disqualification case against former Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, who is vying for reelection next year, said Friday that he filed the petition “out of curiosity as a lawyer” and not to spite the senator.

Atty. Ferdinand Topacio said that he did not have a personal grudge against Pimentel, and he filed the case to see whether his legal opinion is correct.

“This is not to denigrate Koko, wala akong personal na galit sa kanya, wala kaming pinag-awayan. This is just a purely legal thing. Hindi ito personal just to enrage Koko,” Topacio said in a forum.

“Wala po akong personal dito. This is a case of first impression al eh,wala pang ganito. So it is a case of first impression, out of curiosity as a lawyer, sabi ko testingin natin, let’s test the waters. Yun lang naman. Nothing more, nothing less,” Topacio added.

According to Topacio, the senator earlier sought his legal advice on whether he could run for a third term in the Senate. Topacio said that after doing research, he advised the senator that he could no longer run for a third term.

Topacio argued that Pimentel already assumed his first term as senator in 2007, as he won his electoral protest against Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, who was initially proclaimed as the 12th winning senator, in August 2011 as ruled by the Senate Electoral Tribunal.

READ: Disqualification case filed vs Koko Pimentel at Comelec

“I have to be true to myself since that is my view na hindi siya pwedeng tumakbo, I have to be true to be to myself and file this case to determine kung tama o hindi yung aking legal opinion,” he said. /kga