Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III was the first to formally declare on Mon at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) his intention to join the senatorial race as guest candidate of President Aquino’s Liberal Party (LP).
Accompanied by his mother Maria Lourdes and sister Gwendolyn, Pimentel filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) just as the Comelec opened at 8 a.m.
The United Nationalist Alliance initially had planned to draft Pimentel as part of the senatorial lineup for the 2013 elections. But Pimentel, president of PDP-Laban, declined to join the coalition because of the presence in the slate of Juan Miguel Zubiri, whom he has blamed for his abbreviated term.
Zubiri was initially declared the winner of the 12th slot in the 2007 elections, but his victory was overturned after the Comelec gave merit to allegations of cheating in the elections in Maguindanao and awarded the seat to Pimentel.
“This is not a political strategy … this is just a call of circumstances, this is just accidental,” Pimentel said of his COC filing ahead of all the other senatorial aspirants.
In an interview with reporters, Pimentel reiterated that while he filed his candidacy under PDP-Laban, he would run as a guest candidate of the LP.
“I will follow the lead of the LP … and as a guest candidate, as a visitor, I will be well behaved and I will follow the schedule of our overall campaign manager,” the senator said. Jocelyn R. Uy