What will happen when Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III vacates his post?
This is one issue that majority senators will have to resolve when the impending reorganization in the Senate leadership pushes through, at least two reliable sources said on Thursday.
As of Thursday, 14 or majority of the 23 senators have already signed a resolution called “Expressing the sense of the Senate to re-organize its leadership and electing Senator Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III as new Senate President.”
The 15th senator is expected to sign either on Friday or Saturday.
The first source believes that Pimentel would still stay with the majority bloc.
Will Sotto’s current post as Majority Leader be offered to Pimentel? The source doesn’t think so, saying that offering Sotto’s post to Pimentel would be an insult to the latter.
Pimentel, the source said, could be considered in the second highest position in the chamber, the Senate President Pro Tempore.
“But what will happen to Sen. Recto? That’s the problem,” said the source, referring to incumbent Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto.
Another source said Sotto should have long been elected Senate leader but this has been delayed , pending the resolution of the impeachment bid against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
The second source said Sotto would have wanted Pimentel to preside over Sereno’s impeachment trial had it reached the upper chamber.
However, since the Supreme Court has already ousted Sereno through a quo warranto petition, the majority senators feel that the this is now the right time to push for the reorganization of the Senate leadership.
Besides, if the change in leadership would be delayed further, the source said, “Many things could still happen.”
But if Pimentel had his way, the two sources said the Senate leader would like to retain his post until his wedding in October 2018.
Asked if he was ready to relinquish his post now that Sotto has the support of the majority, Pimentel, in a text message, said: “Sure, no problem.” /vvp