Aguirre ‘surprised’ that Alvarez wants him in 2019 senatorial ticket

If it were up to House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II would be fielded in the administration’s senatorial ticket for the 2019 elections.

Alvarez bared his latest “personal” choice on Monday as a guest speaker during the 81st anniversary of the National Bureau of Investigation, an agency under the Department of Justice.

In endorsing Aguirre, Alavarez complained about the Senate’s slow pace in passing legislation.

“I will support the candidacy of Vit Aguirre. I will talk to the President if he could lend Secretary Vit Aguirre to the Senate so the passage of laws there would be a bit faster,” Alvarez said.

A “surprised” Aguirre said he would bow down to the “needs of the times or fate,” which would also depend on “the opinion of the President.”

“I’m ambivalent. For me, what will be will be, que será será,” he later told reporters. “We would obey what the President will tell us.”

As to his chances of making it to the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan senatorial slate, Aguirre said his standing in surveys would have to be considered. “Right now, you would not know what your chances are, especially if the surveys do not include your name,” he said.

Aguirre was known for earning the ire of the late Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago when he acted as a volunteer prosecution lawyer during the impeachment of the now-deceased Chief Justice Renato Corona.

In what Santiago described as a “galactic act of epal” that made her blood pressure shoot up, Aguirre covered his ears while she was berating the prosecution for dropping five of the eight articles of impeachment against Corona.