Pimentel steps down as Senate leader

Passing the seat to Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III bids goodbye as Senate President.

“I step down knowing that I tried my best to do this.

I wish my successor, Senator Sotto, good health and Godspeed and pledge to help the leadership pass pro-people legislation, consistent with the legislative agenda of the President,” Pimentel said in his speech.

This came after 15 senators signed a resolution seeking for the reshuffling of the upper chamber and petitioning Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III to take the headship.

Pimentel said he is one with his colleagues in its aim to reorganize the Senate, thus, he announced: “I will be the one to nominate Senator Tito Sotto III as the new Senate President today.”

The resolution, “expressing its sense to re-organize its leadership” states that “by a majority vote of all the senators, Senator Vicente C. Sotto III is hereby elected as the new Senate President to discharge the duties and powers granted to him by the Rules of the Senate.

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Moreover, Pimentel said the way he handled the Senate was inspired by his father Aquilino Pimentel Jr, who was also a former Senate leader.

“It has been an honor and a privilege for me to serve the Senate as its president, a position once held by my father.

He served the Senate with dignity always staying true to his principles and consistently putting the interest of the nation before his and it was his example I had tried to emulate during my time at the helm of the Senate,” Pimentel said.

DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 05/ 21 /18