Hail to the Senate chief

If the closed-door caucus of Senators goes well today, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III is expected to be installed as the new Senate chief to replace Senate president Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. It was not an acrimonious coup but a smooth transition of the leadership from Pimentel to Sotto unlike the power struggle that marked the Senate leadership changes in the past Congresses.

Even before coming to the caucus, Sotto already secured the vote of confidence of 15 fellow Senators from the same majority bloc that elected Pimentel as Senate president during the first regular sessions of the 17th Congress in July, 2016. There are 17 members of the majority bloc, including Pimentel and Sotto. 

All that is needed to secure a majority vote is 12 plus one out of the 24 Senators. As of present count, the present Senate is only 22 because Senator Leila de Lima is in detention while former Senate majority leader Alan Peter Cayetano resigned to join the Cabinet of President Rodrigo Duterte as Foreign Affairs Secretary.

The Senate resolution electing Sotto as the next Senate president was signed by Senators Gregorio Honasan, Sonny Angara, Cynthia Villar,  Juan Miguel Zubiri, Sherwin Gatchalian, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Richard Gordon, Nancy Binay, Loren Legarda, Joel Villanueva, Francis Escudero, Manny Pacquiao, Panfilo Lacson, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and Sen. Grace Poe.

Among other reasons for his removal as Senate chief, Pimentel is running for reelection next year. But since the filing of certificates of candidacy (CoCs) will only start in October this year, there is actually no bar for Pimentel to stay on as Senate president.

Pimentel has reportedly indicated he prefers to stay on until the start of the filing of the CoCs even as he has publicly declared he would respect whatever decision his colleagues would come up with in the caucus today.

Pimentel made no secret about this when I first raised to him about his tenure in the Upper Chamber during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay at Café Adriatico last April 25. He was insisting then to remain at the Senate helm, citing previous precedents but could not specifically recall as to who among previous re-electionist Senate president was allowed to stay on his post.

As president of the PDP-Laban, Pimentel finds himself on the same boat when former Senate president Manuel Villar who was then president of the Nacionalista Party (NP) when he was replaced by Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. Villar slid down to become Senate minority leader. He was set to run but lost in the May, 2010 presidential election.

As the third highest elected official of the land in the hierarchy of succession, the Senate president holds the enviable position as well as its resources and other perks, not to mention government provided security detail.

Being one of the candidates among the seven re-electionist Senators, Pimentel conceded he should give everyone equal footing while they run and campaign against each other in the coming May, 2019 elections. Pimentel promised to readily relinquish his post to Sotto. But when is the question.

Of the seven re-electionist Senators, four of them belong to Pimentel’s majority bloc, namely, Angara, Ejercito, Poe, and Villar. Two of the re-electionist Senators from the minority bloc are Aquino (LP) and Hontiveros (Anakbayan).

Depending on what his colleagues agree upon in today’s caucus at the Senate, Pimentel’s exit as Senate president is already a done deal.

A resolution to elect Sotto as the new Senate President has already been signed by all members of the majority bloc, excluding the principal players Sotto and Pimentel. As to how soon Sotto will assume and take over as the new Senate president, the majority bloc Senators would want it to take effect immediately.

The second regular sessions of the 17th Congress adjourns sine die this June 3. With just two weeks of sessions left, the majority bloc at the Senate would want Sotto to be installed as Senate president when the 17th Congress opens their third and last regular sessions. And this would be on July 23 when President Duterte delivers his third state-of-the-nation address (SONA) at the joint traditional opening of both chambers of Congress.

Being the most senior Senator, Sotto is regarded by his colleagues, including Pimentel, as worthy to be elected Senate president. Belonging to the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Sotto is seen as someone immune to the intramurals within the ruling administration PDP-Laban party.

A meeting among the majority bloc senators was held last week at the residence of Zubiri where the Senate leadership issue was reportedly taken up. Pimentel was not present since he was abroad. It was the birthday of Zubiri who is being tapped to replace Sotto as the new Senate majority leader. Ironically, Pimentel will slide down as ordinary Senator.

One of those present in that meeting, Lacson disclosed the removal of Pimentel as Senate president is “not something that happened overnight” but came to head recently. Lacson, however, would not call it though a Senate “coup d’etat.”

Perhaps, we can call it simultaneous combustion of Senators with causus belli against Pimentel. Lacson recalled some members of the majority bloc were griping about the raw deal they get from Pimentel’s PDP-Laban party to bring in their political rivals at the local level. Pimentel and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez who is the PDP-Laban secretary-general, went on recruitment binge and conducted en-masse oath-taking of new PDP-Laban members.

A few months back, Ejercito ranted about PDP-Laban San Juan City Rep. Ronaldo Zamora and his son who are his family’s political rivals were sworn in. “All politics is local. Some of our colleagues are not happy that PDP Laban swore in their rivals,” Lacson pointed out.

When Sotto assumes as the new Senate president, he brings with him his long years of experience with the great Senators he once worked with starting with the late Sen. Edgardo Angara who once served as Senate president from 1993-1995. Angara, 83, passed away last week. Hail to the Senate chief!