MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 21 May) – Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III stepped down from his post on Monday.
Pimentel announced his decision in a press conference at the Senate following a resolution signed by 15 senators seeking reorganization of the upper chamber and the election of Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto as its new president.
The 15 senators who signed the resolution were Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Francis Escudero, Sherwin Gatchalian, Richard Gordon, Gregorio Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, Loren Legarda, Manny Pacquiao, Grace Poe, Ralph Recto, Joel Villanueva, Cynthia Villar, and Juan Miguel Zubiri.
“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.
“I will be the one who will nominate Senator Tito Sotto as Senate president,” the outgoing Senate leader said.
“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 new leadership pass pro-people legislation consistent with the legislative agenda of the president,” he said.
Pimentel, president of the ruling PDP-Laban, added he would prepare his party for the 2019 midterm elections and go around the country to explain to the people the benefits of federalism.
Then candidate Rodrigo Duterte ran under the PDP-Laban in the May 2016 presidential polls. (MindaNews)