Super majority of 19 senators to elect Pimentel as Senate president

Photo: Koko Pimentel/Facebook

MANILA—A super majority of 19 senators from several political parties are ready to elect Sen. Aquilino ‘Koko’ Pimentel III as Senate president at the opening of the 17th Congress on Monday.

This after another Senate presidency aspirant Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano cleared the way for Pimentel, according to a press release from the office of Pimentel.

Pimentel said the latest to join the Senate super majority group were Senator Cynthia Villar and Senator Richard Gordon who will take the coveted chairmanship of the powerful Blue Ribbon committee.

Pimentel emerged as the pillar of the Duterte Administration that was swept into power in the May elections on a platform of change, casting Pimentel in a historic role as a shepherd of a legislative program to flesh out the new President’s campaign promises.

”The Senate presidency is a huge challenge and responsibility. I’ll be consultative, gusto ko ginugulo ko din ang mga kasama ko, pag may problema, problemahin din nila,” Pimentel, president of President Rodrigo Duterte’s political party Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), said.

The young Pimentel follows in the footsteps of his father, former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., whose career as a staunch defender of democracy and champion of local governments was crowned by his landmark Local Government Code of 1991.

Pimentel will replace incumbent Senate President Franklin Drilon, who is expected to take the Senate Pro-Tempore President position.

Upcoming Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said the complete lineup of the super majority group will be formally known on Monday when they elect the new Senate president while the next minority leader will be determined in the next few days.

”The minority bloc composition will be announced perhaps after the State-of-the-Nation Address,” Sotto said in a radio dzBB interview.

Senators Francis Escudero and Antonio Trillanes IV, who both ran for vice president in the last elections, have already declared their intention to join the minority bloc.

Other members of the 17th Congress include Senators Ralph Recto, Juan Edgardo ‘Sonny’ Angara, Nancy Binay, Paolo Benigno ‘Bam’ Aquino IV, Loren Legarda, Gregorio Honasan II, Grace Poe, Joseph Victor Ejercito and come-backing Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri, Panfilo Lacson and Francis ‘Kiko’ Pangilinan.

The newcomer senators include Leila de Lima, Manny Pacquiao, Risa Hontiveros and Sherwin Gatchalian.

Pimentel vowed to lead an “activist Senate,” saying “We’ll do our job the way I know – through hard work and steely discipline.”

The Senate will have its opening of the 17th Congress on Monday morning where, aside from the election of Senate president, the new senators will take their oath. The next Senate secretary and sergeant-at-arms will also be elected.

In the afternoon, the senators will proceed at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City for the opening of the joint first regular session of the 17th Congress and to hear the first SONA of President Rodrigo R. Duterte.