Sotto ‘thwarts’ Senate coup; term-share with Legarda on the table
Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday said he and his allies “thwarted” an attempt to have him unseated, but that a term-sharing agreement between him and Sen. Loren Legarda was now being explored.
Sotto confirmed that there was a plan to install Legarda as the next Senate President before the 20th Congress ends in 2028.
“Just a joke,” Sotto said in Filipino in a Viber message sent to reporters. “But we plan to make her SP before [the] 20th Congress ends,” he added.
Sen. JV Ejercito first disclosed to the media the term-sharing agreement between Sotto and Legarda following discussions at the Senate lounge on Wednesday afternoon. The meeting was attended by nine members of the majority bloc, including Sotto and Legarda.
A photo posted on Facebook by Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan showed him with Legarda, who was seated beside Sotto. The others in the photo were Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Ejercito, and Senators Sherwin Gatchalian, Risa Hontiveros and Bam Aquino.
‘Madam President’
It was captioned with the hashtag “powersharing,” above two Philippine flags.
Speaking to reporters following Wednesday’s plenary session, Sotto said “the majority” successfully blocked the leadership change.
“I do not know, ask them,” he added, when asked what made the instigators change their minds.
Legarda was given the chance to taste how it is like to be Senate chief when she briefly took the rostrum on Wednesday.
She presided over the session, with Zubiri addressing her as “Madame President,” before adjourning it.
When asked to explain the reference, Zubiri replied: “Because she may be the future president of the Senate. We’ll see.”
He said the Senate remained “one big happy family.”
Leaked report
Sotto took over as Senate President in September following the ouster of Sen. Francis Escudero from the post.
It was Legarda who seconded Sotto’s nomination for the position at the time.
Coup rumors, which have hounded Sotto’s term, recently surfaced again amid the Senate blue ribbon committee’s probe into allegedly anomalous flood control projects involving former and incumbent senators.
The rumors intensified after an alleged draft of the panel’s partial report was leaked to the media on Tuesday night, supposedly recommending criminal and administrative charges against individuals implicated in the controversy. (See related story on Page A2.)
Lacson, blue ribbon chair, however, said the draft was “withdrawn” because several members wanted to discuss it first.
Sotto, meanwhile, dismissed the leaked document, saying it did not reflect the final report.
“That’s a draft. Far from the real thing. The partial [report] will be out [Wednesday] or Thursday. Do not be misled,” Sotto said in a Viber message.
Withdrawn
It was later learned that three senators—Zubiri, Gatchalian and Ejercito—had signed the draft but later withdrew their signatures, according to a letter they sent to Lacson.
“We understand that there are still additions or amendments to the draft Committee Report of the Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations on the issue of corruption on the flood-control and other infrastructure projects which was earlier presented to us,” the letter stated.
“In this regard, the undersigned would like to withdraw our signatures to the earlier draft presented to us until a final Committee Report has been prepared and to give us more time to study that final Committee Report,” it added.
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