{"id":148410,"date":"2018-01-24T07:13:03","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T12:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=148410"},"modified":"2018-01-24T07:13:03","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T12:13:03","slug":"zubiri-jokes-koko-you-should-have-partied-like-the-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/24\/zubiri-jokes-koko-you-should-have-partied-like-the-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Zubiri jokes Koko: You should have partied like the Speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte witnesses the program proper during the birthday celebration of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez at the New Tagum City Hall in Davao del Norte on January 12, 2017. Also in the photo are Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III. (ROBINSON NI\u00d1AL JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA, Philippines\u00a0\u2014 Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri jokingly told former political rival and Senator President Aquilino \u201cKoko\u201d Pimentel that he should have also celebrated his recent birthday with a party like of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez\u2019s gathering.<\/p>\n

During the current Senate deliberations on the Bangsamoro Basic Law, Zubiri recognized the presence of Pimentel\u2019s father, former Senate President Aquilino \u201cNene\u201d Pimentel Jr., and greeted the younger Pimentel as he celebrated his 54th<\/sup> birthday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDapat nagpa<\/em>-party ka rin katulad ni<\/em> Speaker [You should have held a party just like the Speaker],\u201d Zubiri said.<\/p>\n

However, Zubiri hastily withdrew the statement, saying: \u201cAs the Speaker said, joke only.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, Alvarez celebrated his recent birthday with a party attended by President Rodrigo Duterte and some notable personalities in politics and showbiz.<\/p>\n

Aside from Duterte, Pimentel graced the event alongside Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua, Russian Ambassador to Manila Igor Khovaev, and other partisans of the ruling Partido Demokratiko \u2013 Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).<\/p>\n

Television host Boy Abunda and singer Jed Madela were also present during the birthday party.<\/p>\n

The public criticized Alvarez\u2019s birthday party, describing it as \u201cexcessive.”<\/p>\n

However, Malaca\u00f1ang was quick to defend Alvarez against the backlash of criticisms, saying the birthday party was \u201csimple\u201d despite the attendance of high government officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing lavish about the affair, I can assure you that,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press briefing.<\/p>\n

Zubiri and Pimentel were earlier \u201cbitter rivals\u201d as they were involved in a feud over the 2007 electoral fraud that initially gave the former a Senate seat.<\/p>\n

Zubiri took the seat as the 12th<\/sup> winning senator defeating Pimentel who was in the 13th<\/sup> place.<\/p>\n

The senator from Bukidnon then resigned after supposed evidence\u00a0of cheating in the election. In August 2011, Pimentel replaced him in the Senate.<\/p>\n

In 2016, the two settled their rivalry after no less than Zubiri nominated Pimentel to be the Senate President.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Philippines\u00a0\u2014 Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri jokingly told former political rival and Senator President Aquilino \u201cKoko\u201d Pimentel that he should …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":146546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[17987,15123,13135,31449,29646,44468],"class_list":["post-148410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-birthday-party","tag-house-speaker-pantaleon-alvarez","tag-president-rodrigo-duterte","tag-presidential-spokesperson-harry-roque","tag-senator-juan-miguel-zubiri","tag-senator-president-aquilino","mauthors-carlo-jacob-molina","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}