Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Monday denied “offering” Senator Alan Peter Cayetano a majority support for the Senate presidency. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Monday denied “offering” Senator Alan Peter Cayetano a majority support for the Senate presidency.
Several minutes after Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III was elected Senate President, Cayetano posted on Facebook claiming he had two offers which “would have made [him] Senate President.”
READ: Cayetano bares ‘offers’ to make him Senate President
Sotto said he was not aware of such claims and denied his alliances offered Cayetano support for the post.
“I don’t know that’s his opinion. I don’t know. I have no idea whether it’s true or not,” Sotto said.
“Hindi kami nag-offer. Kung hindi nakipag-usap kami. Iba ‘yung nag-offer at saka ‘yung nakipagusap eh (We didn’t offer him [our support]. We just talked. Offering and talking are different.).”
Sotto also clarified that his meeting with Cayetano, together with his comrades, did not reach an agreement.
READ: Senate Presidency: Alan Cayetano gives way to Pimentel
“Hindi gusto nung grupo yung mga committees na sinasabi ni Alan noon eh. ‘Yung mga chairmanship nung mga committees na binabanggit, hindi gusto nung grupo namin (Our group did not like the committees Alan was saying before. Our group didn’t like the chairmanships of committees). I was not alone in that issue,” Sotto said.
“That’s the reason we did not reach an agreement because if we were to offer anyone, an agreement would have been easily been reached.”
Even before the opening of the 17th Congress, Sotto explained that there were nine solid votes from the majority including him and other eight senators, who are Liberal Party (LP) members.
“We were a solid 9 at the start. Even up to now, I still believe it’s a solid 9,” he said.
“We started talking to him (Cayetano) then he started talking to us. And we didn’t reach an agreement. So if we are nine [and] there are eight members or LP group members, there’s no way any other can get more than eight or nine [votes],” Sotto explained.
“Eight plus nine is 17. So there are seven others na hindi namin alam kung anong grupo (who we didn’t know the group where they belong). So there could be no other groups except the two groups that were really a group at that point.”
Amid the tension, Sotto confirmed that Cayetano would be part of the majority.
“Basta I know for a fact that during our bidding together with the President, with Senator Koko present, ang pinagusapan namin—o ang sinabi nya (we talked or he said) is that he is with us.” Kristina Casandra Tayam, INQUIRER.net/RAM/rga