SENATOR Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday denied allegations of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV that he is behind a plot to oust Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and replace him as head of the Senate.
“It’s a figment of the imagination of Senator Trillanes. I don’t have any plans to get the leadership,” Cayetano said in a press conference in BGC, Taguig.
Cayetano said that aside from the fact that Pimentel is trusted by senators and President Rodrigo Duterte himself, he said he has “too much work.”
“Is Senator Koko doing a good job? Yes. Is it perfect? No,” Cayetano said, saying it was too early to judge his colleague.
“Even if I do get to be Senate President, I have too much work that pulls me out of the Senate,” he added.
Cayetano earlier said that he would gladly accept any assignment offered to him by Duterte and serve him “in any capacity.”
In December, Duterte said he would appoint Cayetano, his losing vice presidential running mate, as secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Cayetano said the public should “expect weekly intrigues” from Trillanes and crticized him for claiming he was power-hungry.
“[Trillanes] is making it look like I’m hungry for power. I can prove I’m not hungry for power by leaving the Senate now. Can he do the same?”
Trillanes responded by saying Cayetano should go first.
In a text message, Trillanes said: “He should resign first.” He reminded Cayetano about his promise that he would quit the Senate if the problems of crime, corruption and illegal drugs were not solved within three to six months of the Duterte administration.
Earlier, Trillanes claimed that Cayetano was leading some senators in the majority bloc to oust Pimentel after debates on which Senate committee should lead the investigation into the reported bribery at the Bureau of Immigration.
The Senate on Wednesday agreed to allow two Senate committees hold separate inquiries.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, who is also chairman of the Senate committee on rules, moved to refer the resolution of Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon, to the Senate committee on civil service government reorganization and professional regulation and the Senate committee on justice and human rights.
The Civil Service Committee is chaired by Trillanes while the Justice committee is chaired by Senator Richard Gordon.
On Tuesday, Trillanes and Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri had a heated exchange in the Senate after the former claimed that the latter was whitewashing the proposed Senate probe of the bribery scandal.
Zubiri insisted that the probe should be conducted by Gordon’s committee.
Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri and JV Ejercito, who were also named by Trillanes as being behind the move to unseat Pimentel, both denied the allegation.
Zubiri said there was no plan to oust Pimentel.
“As a fellow Mindanaoan I will not support such a move,” he said.
“I’d like to put that on record that we have never discussed any plan for the change of leadership,” Zubiri added.
Ejercito also denied claims that he was part of a plot against Pimentel.
“No truth to that. That’s just a product of his imagination,” said Ejercito who earlier mentioned some disagreements with Pimentel, but noted these were not enough to warrant Pimentel’s ouster.
Sotto said he had no idea about any plot against Pimentel and promised to support his leadership.