Allies urge Koko, Alan: Don’t fight, join forces

Allies are urging Senator Alan Peter Cayetano (left) and Senator Koko Pimentel to quit competing for the Senate presidency and unite. INQUIRER FILES

Senators Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Alan Peter Cayetano should just join forces instead of competing with each other for the chamber’s presidency so that their colleagues would no longer have to be torn between them, according to senators who have yet to join the chamber’s majority.

Sen. JV Ejercito and Senator-elect Juan Miguel Zubiri, who earlier expressed inclination to support Cayetano, on Wednesday said Pimentel and Cayetano should just work together.

A total of 14 senators, which is already a majority, had signed the draft resolution backing Pimentel for the Senate presidency. Ejercito and Zubiri, both Duterte supporters, have yet to sign the draft.

But Cayetano still wants to pursue the Senate presidency, said Ejercito.

“I hope [Pimentel and Cayetano] work things out. Anyway, they are in the same camp. I feel we are all allies because we all support President Duterte,” Ejercito told reporters on Wednesday.

According to him, Cayetano believes that there are members of the majority being formed who were not true supporters of Duterte.

Ejercito said he was identified with Cayetano  because it was the latter who talked to him first.

Zubiri, for his part, met separately with Pimentel and Cayetano in Davao City recently. He said he told them that they should talk to each other and hoped they would work together.

But he declined to disclose more details of the discussions.