Why Cayetano won't win Senate presidency, Sotto explains 

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano failed to clinch the support of majority of his colleagues for the Senate presidency race because he imposed restrictions in the selection of committee chairmanships, Sen. Vicente Sotto III said Wednesday.

Sotto recalled he and Sen. Gregorio Honasan II met Cayetano, who told them about how the Senate reorganization would look like under his watch.

“Kinausap niya kami kaya lang during that time, to be very candid about it, meron na siya agad positions na ‘si ganito, si ganyan’. ‘Sa position na ito, di puwede kay ganito, kay ganyan.’ Ganun dating niya,” Sotto said.

Cayetano does not want Senator-elect Leila de Lima to head the justice and human rights committee, Senator Loren Legarda to keep her post as Senate finance committee head, and returning Sen. Panfilo Lacson as chairman for the public order and dangerous drugs committee.

De Lima is against President-elect Rodrigo Duterte's proposal to reimpose the death penalty while Lacson has said he would not hesitate to probe the incoming government's fight against criminality and illegal drugs.  

The defeated vice presidential bet and running mate of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte pushed for Sen. JV Ejercito as chairman of the public order committee and Villar as chairman of the finance committee, Sotto said. 

This turned off Sotto's bloc, which is composed of eight senators and prompted them to hold talks with Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, a stalwart of the PDP-Laban party which is being chaired by Duterte. 

“Koko came to join us in a dialogue and he was very open. The openness of Koko Pimentel was very inviting dahil wala siyang do's and don'ts. He just wanted the ideas, the values, the programs that we wanted to pursue,” Sotto said.

“So pagdating ni Koko Pimentel sa usapan, payag na payag siya. He also did not say that he wanted to be Senate President nung nag-usap kami. It just happened that syempre people were thinking na siya naman ang party president and he’s still up for it also.”

Sotto's group then linked up with the group of Senate President Franklin Drilon, who said he agreed to give up his post to Pimentel to provide stability in the chamber. 

At least 16 out of 24 senators are now on Pimentel's side, according to Drilon. 

With this, Sotto called on Cayetano to just join the majority to show that he is really serious in moving Duterte's legislative agenda forward. 

“It would be better if his group would join the majority. What would they want to do, go to the minority? And do what?” Sotto said.

Only Senators Francis Escudero and Antonio Trillanes IV have indicated their membership in the minority bloc. 

Sen. Ralph Recto and Senator-elect Joel Villanueva are still unsure on who to back for Senate president, according to Sotto.  —APG, GMA News