Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
As far as outgoing Senate President Franklin Drilon is concerned, there is no question on who will be his successor when the 17th Congress opens on Monday.
Drilon said with certainty yesterday that the Senate will elect Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, President Duterte’s lone party-mate at the chamber, as the new Senate President, ending speculation on whether his contender, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, still has a fighting chance.
Pimentel, the only member of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) at the Senate, is said to have received the support of at least 14 of his colleagues at the chamber.
“The Senate will officially convene and officially open the 17th Congress. We will elect Sen. Pimentel, the only PDP-Laban member in the Senate as Senate President,” Drilon said.
Drilon is expected to be elected Senate President Pro Tempore, the second highest-ranking official at the chamber who takes the place of the Senate President in his absence.
Sen. Vicente Sotto III has secured votes to become Senate majority leader.
Drilon, who heads the Liberal Party (LP) bloc that has coalesced with the majority, said the matter of the Senate leadership was settled early so that it could focus on pursuing the Duterte administration’s legislative agenda.
“We would like to hit the ground running. That is why as early as a month ago, we already settled the leadership issue in the Senate so that we could concentrate on preparing for the work ahead of us, so that the stability in the Senate leadership would enable us to concentrate on the measures that we would like to push in the first year of the Duterte administration,” he said in a press forum yesterday.
Drilon said there was no need for the LP to sign a formal coalition with the new ruling party.
“No need. For us, our word is cast in stone,” he said.
Full support
Earlier this week, PDP-Laban released a manifesto supporting the election of Pimentel as Senate President and Davao del Norte First District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez as House Speaker, throwing its weight behind its two stalwarts.
In its manifesto, the party recognized the two leaders’ “enormous responsibility” to see to fruition Duterte’s plans and programs.
“[T]he party believes that Sen. Pimentel is the most qualified and competent to lead the Senate in spearheading the legislative agenda of President Duterte,” read the manifesto dated July 16 and released yesterday.
It said the same of Alvarez, who has mustered a supermajority in the Lower House, with more than 200 lawmakers forming an alliance with the President’s party.
The manifesto was signed by 32 national and regional officers, all agreeing to “throw their full and unequivocal support” behind the two party leaders in their bid for Congress leadership. Fourteen other party leaders were unable to sign as they were absent when the resolution was finalized.