Will Koko stay with UNA?
After the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) did not act on Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III’s concerns about the inclusion of former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri in the 2013 senatorial slate, he said that he will be meeting with family, party mates, friends and supporters before making his next move.
“Now it’s time for me to hold a consultative meeting with my family and supporters... who I hope will help me make up my mind,” Pimentel said over ANC.
UNA is a coalition of former President Joseph Estrada’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) and Vice President Jejomar Binay’s Partido Demokratikong PilipinoLakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban). In a telephone interview with The
STAR, Estrada said it would now be up to Pimentel to decide whether he would stay with UNA or not.
“We (UNA executive committee) will let him decide. Our agreement in the coalition (UNA) in PDP-Laban and PMP is that we will respect whoever is nominated as senatorial candidates by PDP-Laban and PMP. Migz (Zubiri) is a PMP member,” Estrada said.
Estrada added that he wants to personally talk to Pimentel, who is one of his godsons, to reconsider his position and stay with UNA.
“I want to meet him personally. I don’t want to give him (any) advice through the media,” Estrada stressed.
According to Estrada, “A man is innocent until he is proven guilty.”
“He (Zubiri) was not included in the indictment (in the case of election sabotage filed against former President now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former Commission on Elec- tions chairman Benjamin Abalos). He is not guilty. He is just a beneficiary of the cheating, but he was not part of it. So we agreed to include him in UNA senatorial slate,” Estrada explained.
UNA deputy secretary-general Nancy Binay-Angeles said Pimentel is still one of the senatorial candidates of UNA for the election next year.
“We are very much concerned about Senator Koko Pimentel. He is still part of UNA. It’s up to him to decide,” Angeles, daughter of Vice President Binay, said.
UNA spokesman JV Bautista said that UNA would not decide on Pimentel’s concerns about Zubiri.
“We are no longer speaking here of one party. We are talking here about an alliance, which is UNA. Migz was not chosen by UNA. He was chosen by PMP. Koko, as president of PDP-Laban, is a signatory of the alliance. He must comply with the agreement signed by the alliance,” Bautista explained.
“PMP did not oppose Koko. The same respect should be accorded to the PMP. Migz’s decision is to stay. If Koko decides to leave, it is up to him,” Bautista added.
UNA executive members Estrada, Binay and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile met to thresh out the differences between Pimentel and Zubiri, but Pimentel did not come.
Meanwhile, Zubiri welcomed his official inclusion in the senatorial lineup of UNA yesterday with a vow to continue reaching out to Pimentel for reconciliation.
“I am hoping that Senator Koko will see it in his heart to accept the decision of UNA so that we may close this particular chapter of our lives,” Zubiri said.
– With Marvin Sy