Change in Senate leadership not a ‘coup’ – Lacson

Sen. Panfilo Lacson. (Photo by CATHY MIRANDA / INQUIRER.net)

Sen. Panfilo Lacson denied accusations that the expression of support for Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III as Senate President was a coup d’etat against current current leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.

“This is not a coup d’etat. Normally, in a coup d’etat ang SP [Senate President] becomes the minority leader,” Lacson said in Filipino in a interview with DWIZ on Saturday. “That not what happened here. At the committee level we agreed nobody would be moved except that one picked by the committee of Senator Pimentel.

Fifteen senators from the majority bloc signed a Senate resolution endorsing Sotto as Senate President, replacing Pimentel who had held the position for almost two years.

READ: 14 senators sign draft resolution electing Sotto as next Senate leader

Lacson said that the change came as some senators were not satisfied with Pimentel’s reaction towards criticisms hurled by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez towards the Senate.

“When the Speaker hit the Senate for being slow and then voted jointly to ignore us,” Lacson said in Filipino. “They would have wanted to hear the Senate leader speak up. But then, as you know, the Senate President is nonconfrontational.”

According to Lacson, changes are also expected in other Senate positions, as Sotto is currently the majority floor leader.

“And we all agreed that Senator Migz [Miguel Zubiri] will be the majority leader,” Lacson said.

However, he said that the date of Sotto’s assumption of the Senate presidency was not yet certain.

“We will talk about when this will be executed or implemented,” he said, adding that there would be caucus on Monday, May 21, at the office of the Senate President. /atm