Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
“You first.”
“No, you first.”
It came down to a swapping of resignation calls between fierce administration ally Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and staunch critic Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV on Friday as the two bickered over the latter’s charges that the President’s former running mate was out to snatch the Senate presidency.
“If Sen. Trillanes thinks I am the problem, then we should resign together tomorrow. Because I think he is the problem in the Senate,” Cayetano said in a press conference on Friday.
Told of Cayetano’s response, Trillanes made a quick retort and made reference to the still-unfulfilled campaign promises of the Duterte administration.
“He should go first because he was the one who promised to resign if [the administration] cannot solve crime, corruption and illegal drugs within three to six months,” Trillanes said in a statement.
It all began when Trillanes accused Cayetano of leading an ouster plot against Pimentel, the President’s chief ally in the chamber and head of Mr. Duterte’s party, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino- Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).
In a television interview on Thursday, Trillanes, among the three in the Senate minority, said the majority bloc led by Cayetano was plotting to remove Pimentel from the chamber’s helm.
Trillanes noted how Senators Joseph Victor Ejercito, Juan Miguel Zubiri and Richard Gordon, showed behavior aimed at destabilizing Pimentel’s clout.
But Cayetano said he would have no use for the Senate presidency as he is expected to leave the Senate to serve the cabinet as foreign secretary in the middle of the year.