Koko to run under LP
SEN. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel 3rd announced on Thursday that he is joining the Senate ticket of the ruling Liberal Party ( LP) for the 2013 midterm elections.
“I would like to announce that I have accepted [ President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s] invitation to join his [Senate] ticket for [the] 2013 [polls]. I would like to thank the President for inviting me. Tulad ng sinabi niya sa akin noon: ‘You will always have a home here.’ So I really feel at home and welcome in the President’s ticket,” Pimentel told reporters.
He said that President Aquino was having a hard time deciding who would be the last member of his 12-man Senate slate, considering that there are 13 people still under consideration for the
remaining slot.
“Malapit nang mabuo ng Presidente ang [ Senate] ticket niya. Malapit na, sabi niya. By September, definitely. Wala rin namang choice, October 1 na ‘ yung filing. I think he is excited to campaign for us because [ he said that] he is already [ writing] his endorsement speech,” Pimentel said.
The senator, the son of former senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., admitted that he did not think twice about joining President Aquino’s party, since they share the same advocacy.
“Malaki ang utang na loob ko sa kanya kasi ‘ yung hustisya sa election protest [ case] ko, nakamit ko sa ilalim ng term niya. Unlike [ noong] previous administration, tatlong taon ang lumipas doon, walang nangyari,” Koko said.
Koko is the president of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino- Lakas ng Bayan ( PDP- Laban), which formed the United Nationalist Alliance ( UNA) with former president Joseph Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) party. The senator left the alliance after it accepted former senator Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri, a PMP member, as one of its Senate bets.
Koko had accused Zubiri of stealing his place in the Senate by benefitting from the electoral fraud that allegedly took place in Mindanao during the 2007 midterm polls.
“I have no intention to leave the PDP- Laban. It was not a requirement. In other words, this is what you call a guest candidacy,” Pimentel said.
LP recently formed a coalition with the Nacionalista Party of Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr. and the Nationalist People’s Coalition of businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., a maternal uncle of President Aquino.