PDP-LABAN president Senator Aquilino Pimentel III will be the next Senate president in the 17th Congress, outgoing Senate President Franklin Drilon said Wednesday.
In an interview at the “Kapihan sa Manila Bay,” Drilon said he will sit as Senate president pro tempore and acting Minoriy Leader Vicente Sotto III would be majority leader.
“Last night we met and had the agreement. The president of the incoming Senate will be Senator Aquilino Pimentel,” Drilon said.
Drilon said the setup was unusual because Pimentel was the only PDP-Laban senator.
“Certainly in the recent memory, I do not recall a similar setup,” said Drilon, noting that choosing Pimentel as the next Senate president is an indication that they are willing to support, in general, the legislative agenda of the administration of incoming President Rodrigo Duterte.
Drilon said the support for Pimentel was already a “cast in stone.”
“We have enough. We have more than the required majority,” he added.
Pimentel’s father and namesake, Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., was Senate president in 2000 to 2001 during the Estrada administration.
Drilon said that the major political parties met Tuesday night to forge an alliance to form a “supermajority.”
The other members of the alliance are Senators Ralph Recto, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Joel Villanueva, Leila de Lima, Francis Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros (Akbayan party-list), Joel Villanueva (CIBAC party-list), Panfilo Lacson, Sonny Angara, Grace Poe, Loren Legarda, Gregorio Honasan, Manny Pacquiao, Sherwin Gatchalian and Nancy Binay.
“We have six Liberal Party [LP] members, one Akbayan, the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino [LDP] plus the Nationalist People’s Coalition [NPC] and the other allied political groups,” said Drilon, who was Senate president for four terms.
A majority vote of 13 is needed to elect the Senate president.
Asked why he did not fight for his current position when the LP has the most number of senators, Drilon said they would have still needed five allies. Instead of wrangling, they decided to settle for the pro tempore post and support the lone PDP-Laban senator.
Drilon dismissed suggestions that the alliance in the Senate mirrored the coalition formed by House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and the PDP-Laban.
“There are 24 republics in the Senate. Each one of us has his or her own mandate. Each one of us makes his or her own decision. We did not take into account what was happening in the House. We took into account what we believed the Senate, as an institution, should stand for,” Drilon said.
“Koko [Pimentel] was the choice of the 16 or 17 senators. We were eight. Tito [Sotto] had eight or nine,” Drilon said.
Before the agreement was forged Tuesday night, Duterte’s defeated running mate, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano had lobbied to be Senate president, saying he had the support of 15 senators. Sotto, on the other hand, said 18 senators would support him.
Pimentel said he would invite Cayetano to join the majority.
Cayetano belongs to the Nacionalista Party with three other members—Senators Cynthia Villar, Antonio Trillanes IV and Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose term of office expires on June 30.
Among those who aired their support for Cayetano were Villar, Senators-elect Manny Pacquiao and Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Trillanes, who had launched a furious attack on Duterte during the campaign, said Wednesday he would join the minority bloc in the Senate.
In a text message, Trillanes also congratulated Pimentel for being chosen by the majority as the Senate president when Congress opens on July 25.
“I am confident that under his watch, the Senate’s integrity and independence won’t be compromised,” said Trillanes.
Pimentel had earlier expressed hope to get the support of his five other colleagues except Trillanes and Senator Francis Escudero.
Escudero confirmed he would be part of the minority as a matter of personal principle and belief.
He said there was no decision yet as to who would run against Pimentel in the Senate presidency race to get the position of the minority leader.
Under the Senate rules, the losing contender for the post automatically becomes the opposition leader.
Pimentel said he would not make any offer to Cayetano but pointed out that the chairmanship of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and other panels was up for grabs.