Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III FILE PHOTO
Another invitation for former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, this time for him to join the senatorial slate of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), is being questioned.
Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III belied reports that his party, PDP-Laban, was negotiating with Estrada to be part of the administration ticket in the senatorial race next year.
Pimentel, who is president of PDP-Laban, recently came up with a wish list of senatorial candidates whom his party would like to include on its slate.
“Not true,” he said in a mobile chat with Senate reporters as he attached a copy of the Inquirer report published on Wednesday that quoted Estrada as saying someone from the administration approached him to be part of its senatorial team.
“There are no negotiations going on. Nothing. Nada. Hence, what can I say?” the Senate President told reporters when pressed on Estrada’s statements.
Asked to comment on Pimentel’s denial, Estrada stood by his statements.
Negotiations?
“All I can say is I received a call from someone from PDP-Laban and there are negotiations,” he said in a statement.
“I’m not sure if (Pimentel) is aware of this because I have not been in talks with him,” said Estrada, who is charged with plunder but is out on bail.
On Tuesday, Estrada told reporters that he would “keep mum” on his talks with someone from the ruling party until the negotiations were finalized.
He also declined to identify the person he was talking with about his possible inclusion on the administration slate.
Pimentel did not reply to queries about Estrada’s latest statements.
Administration ticket
Estrada said he was running for senator in 2019 even if it meant that he and his half-brother, Sen. JV Ejercito, would occupy Senate seats at the same time.
He earlier said he would run on the administration ticket or he could run as an independent, who would be supportive of President Duterte “no matter what happens.”
The former senator also said Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) could coalesce with PDP-Laban. The PMP was founded by his father, former President Joseph Estrada, now the Manila mayor.
The younger Estrada was recently released from jail after three years of detention on plunder charges for alleged misuse of his pork barrel funds on ghost projects of bogus foundations set up by Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the scam.
Last month, Estrada figured in a controversy involving an invitation for him to talk in May before a group in the United States espousing good governance.
The Sandiganbayan allowed him to go to the United States on the basis of the invitation from the US Pinoys for Good Governance (USPGG) in Michigan.
USPGG national president Rodel E. Rodis and national chair Loida Nicolas Lewis, however, denied that their group had invited Estrada.