SENATOR Cynthia Villar said Tuesday she is supporting Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano who is vying for the Senate presidency under the 17th Congress.
She and Cayetano are both members of the Nacionalista Party, and she said she had information that Cayetano was the choice of newly proclaimed President Rodrigo Duterte.
“I asked whom he [Duterte] wanted indirectly,” Villar said, adding he hoped Cayetano would emerged victorious in the four-way fight for the Senate presidency.
Duterte had said it was up to Cayetano and Senator Aquilino Pimentel III to talk who of them would be Senate president.
Cayetano is the defeated running mate of Duterte while Pimentel is PDP-Laban president and Duterte is its chairman.
Cayetano says he has the support of 15 senators in his bid to wrest the Senate presidency from reelected Senator Franklin Drilon.
A senator needs 13 votes from his colleagues to unseat Drilon, who will likely keep his position if Cayetano and Pimentel will contest the Senate leadership.
Since both of them are staunch allies of Duterte, their votes would be divided, which would pave the way for the Liberal Party to remain in control of the Senate.
Villar said she was the first to sign a resolution being circulated electing Cayetano for the position. Senator-elect Manny Pacquiao also signed the resolution.
Cayetano, Pimentel and Drilon aside, the other aspirant for the leadership of the Senate is Senator Tito Sotto who claims 18 senators have committed to vote for him.
Meanwhile, Villar also said the other NP member in the Senate, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, had indicated he might just join the minority bloc if Cayetano became the next Senate president.
She said she also hoped to remain chairman of the Senate committees on agriculture, government corporations and public enterprises.