Pimentel steps down; Sotto heads Senate

MANILA, Philippines — Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III was elected yesterday as the new leader of the chamber, a move seen to address the dissatisfaction of senators over the leadership of Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.

Pimentel announced that he was stepping down from his post and thanked his colleagues from the majority bloc for having “tolerated me or stomached me in the past 22 months.”

Fifteen out of 17 members of the majority bloc last week signed a resolution seeking the election of Sotto as Senate president that brought the issue into the open.

“This is an example of a peaceful and willing transfer of power in the Senate,” he said when asked whether he felt betrayed by his colleagues in the majority bloc.

Among the gripes mentioned by senators in recent interviews was that Pimentel was “too nice” and did not defend the chamber strongly enough from criticisms, including those coming from his partymate in PDP-Laban, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

Some reelectionist senators, who belong to the other political parties but are allied with President Duterte, also earlier lamented that Pimentel did not push hard enough for their inclusion in the administration senatorial slate in the 2019 elections when Alvarez excluded them from the list.

He attributed some of the differences with his colleagues to his leadership style and personality. 

“Even with my (management) style, we co-exist harmoniously,” Pimentel said.

He said he consulted with his father, former Senate president Aquilino Pimentel Jr. on the matter, who told him that such change should be done “willingly and quickly.”

Pimentel was the one who nominated Sotto to succeed him, saying it was the latter who, on many occasions, solved problems on the floor.

Sotto, the most senior member of the chamber, is not a member of PDP-Laban but he belongs to the Nationalist People’s Coalition, which is country’s second largest political party and allied with the administration.  – With Jose Rodel Clapano, Alexis Romero

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