'Attend special session, settle leadership row'

Former Senate president Aquilino Pimentel III challenged the faction of Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano to attend a special legislative session with “100 percent” attendance and settle the chamber’s leadership dispute through a formal floor vote, rather than resorting to boycotts.

- By NEIL JAYSON SERVALLOS

Speaking over radio dwIZ, Pimentel emphasized that the Senate is a collegial body where leadership is strictly determined by numbers.

“They need to have a plenary session, both groups need to show discipline, 100 percent attendance so we will finally know. Whoever the biggest group chooses as the leader,” he said that person runs the Senate, the plenary," he said.

Pimentel argued if a Senate president is constantly overruled by a larger faction, it proves he has lost the chamber's mandate and should step down.

Malacañang earlier said President Marcos is ready to call for a special session of Congress to pass priority measures, derailed by the ongoing political ruckus and leadership row in the Senate.

Pimentel criticized the Cayetano bloc's strategy of deliberately skipping plenary sessions to freeze floor operations and hold on to their positions.

"They boycotted a session and that is wrong. You should want the work, not the position," Pimentel said.

With the ongoing absence of detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and Sen.

Ronald dela Rosa, who is still in hiding, Pimentel noted the active floor balance currently stands at 12-10 in favor of the newly installed bloc led by acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian.