14 senators sign draft resolution electing Sotto as next Senate leader

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III. —EDWIN BACASMAS

Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III’s fate has been sealed with a draft resolution signed by 14 or majority out of 23 senators, electing Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III as the next Senate leader.

The 15th senator is expected to sign the resolution either on Friday or Saturday.

The resolution “Expressing the sense of the Senate to ore-organize its leadership and electing Senator Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III as new Senate President.”

“By a majority of all the senators, Senator Vicente C. Sotto III is hereby elected as the new Senate President to discharge the duties and powers granted to him by the rules of the Senate,” read the resolution.

“It is hereby resolved by a majority vote of all the senators, to express its sense to reorganize its leadership, and hereby electing Senator Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III as the new Senate President,” it added.

The 14 senators who signed the resolution were the following:

1. Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto
2. Senator Sonny Angara
3. Senator Loren Legarda
4. Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito
5. Senator Nancy Binay
6. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian
7. Senator Francis Escudero
8. Senator Richard Gordon
9. Senator Gregorio Honasan
10. Senator Panfilo Lacson
11. Senator Manny Pacquiao
12. Senator Joel Villanueva
13. Senator Cynthia Villar
14. Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri

Only three in the majority block — Pimentel, Sotto, and Senator Grace Poe— were not signatories in the resolution.

But a reliable source said Poe would be the 15th senator to sign the resolution. /je