Villar joins Senate majority, pledges support to Pimentel

Senator Cynthia Villar. SCREENGRAB from INQUIRER.net FILE VIDEO

The Senate majority got even bigger, with Sen. Cynthia Villar pledging support to Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III for the chamber’s presidency.

Villar’s decision brings to 20 the number of senators in the camp of Pimentel, who is assured of victory as Senate President when his colleagues choose their next leader on Monday.

Pimentel disclosed Villar’s decision in a radio interview on Saturday, and said she could be given the chairmanship of the Senate’s environment and natural resources committee.

Villar is a member of the Nacionalista Party and used to support Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano when he was gunning for the Senate presidency.

Cayetano has not declared he would withdraw his bid for the Senate leadership, but Pimentel said he and his colleague had agreed that they should work together when they had dinner with President Duterte on Tuesday.

Cayetano and Pimentel are both allies of the President.

Cayetano was Mr. Duterte’s defeated running mate, while Pimentel is the President of his party, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan. TVJ