Zubiri back at Senate, urges Pimentel, Cayetano to settle rivalry

Returning Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri (left) is hoping that Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Aquilino Pimentel III (center and right) would settle their leadership issues. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines–On his return to the chamber he painfully left nearly five years ago, Senator-elect Juan Miguel Zubiri is hoping for a unified Senate, praying foremost that the seeming tug-of-war for the Senate presidency between two friends could be settled peacefully soon.

Zubiri, who received a fresh mandate in the May polls after resigning over what he called “false” fraud allegations in 2011, expressed hope that Senators Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Alan Peter Cayetano could settle the Senate leadership so that the chamber could support incoming President Rodrigo Duterte as one.

Pimentel, president of Duterte’s party, PDP-Laban, and Cayetano, the incoming President’s running mate who lost the vice presidential election, are known to be jockeying for the Senate presidency. The former has, however, secured the support of most of his colleagues in the chamber.

READ: Drilon: Koko is next Senate president | Koko: Alan welcome in new Senate majority

“I hope they just talk. One can be Senate President, the other can be Senate President protempore, then they can do a swap later on. Let them discuss it [between] themselves,” Zubiri told reporters before noon Tuesday.

“I’m hoping that the sooner they meet, the better,” said Zubiri, who left the Senate after an electoral protest Pimentel filed against his 2007 victory.

Zubiri, who visited the Senate Tuesday, the first time since his proclamation, said the 17th Congress should be “an advent of a new image for the senators, a new image for this Congress.”

“We shouldn’t be dividing the lines this early. We should be a unified front in the Senate. lalo na coming from the last Senate, where there were so many controversies,” Zubiri said.

“People chose Duterte because they want change. If the Senate will be business as usual in terms of the bickering, the fighting, if we do not come out with good legislation, the people will be angry. They want change, let’s give them change, but with a unified front of all the senators,” Zubiri said.

The returning senator earlier signed a resolution supporting Cayetano’s bid for the Senate presidency, believing that it was already discussed among his colleagues, including Pimentel.

“I’m praying and hoping that my two friends will see each other this week because I’m sure he will be at the inauguration of President Duterte and talk about the situation at the Senate so we have a unified front,” he said.

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