Koko on running with Arroyo under PDP-Laban 2019 slate: ‘That is life, things change’

Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III is open to the possibility of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo being a part of their senatorial ticket for 2019.

Pimentel, president of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), had earlier accused Arroyo, now Pampanga congresswoman, of electoral sabotage for supposedly ordering poll fraud in 2007.

Just this week, Arroyo left her party, the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), jumping ship to the administration party PDP-Laban.

Sought for comment on the possibility of him running with Arroyo in the same 2019 slate, Pimentel said: “That is life. Things change.”

“But she must be the one to change by embracing the PDP-Laban’s core principles of belief in God, human dignity, love of country, equal opportunities for all, consultative and participatory democracy, and federalism,” Pimentel added.

Pimentel earlier bared his personal bets to be included in the 2019 slate. The list included him, Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, Representatives Alfredo Benitez (Negros Occidental), Geraldine Roman (Bataan), Karlo Nograles (Davao City), and former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Francis Tolentino.

Arroyo was not yet a member of the PDP-Laban when Pimentel shared his list to the media.

The PDP-Laban president said the party will stop accepting new members by the end of next month.

In the 2013 elections, Pimentel left the coalition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) over the inclusion of then senatorial candidate Miguel Zubiri. He joined the Liberal Party as a guest candidate.

Zubiri, who was proclaimed by the Commission on Elections as the 12th winning senator in 2007, resigned from the Senate on August 2011, amid mounting testimonies about alleged fraud during the 2007 polls. 

He was replaced by Pimentel, who had filed an electoral protest against him, and initially ranked 13th in the elections. According to Senate Electoral Tribunal’s (SET) final tally, Pimentel got 10,898,786 votes while Zubiri got 10,640,620. —KG, GMA News