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With his election as Senate President, Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III follows the footsteps of his father, Nene Pimentel, who also once served as the top leader of the chamber.
Koko Pimentel almost did not make it to the Senate on his first try in 2007 as he was initially boxed out of the Magic 12 by fellow Mindanaoan, then Bukidnon Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) initially declared Zubiri as the 12th winning senator in 2007 polls, with 11,005,866 votes while Pimentel initially ranked 13th with 10,987,347 votes.
Four years after the 2007 elections, Pimentel took his oath as senator after the Senate Electoral Tribunal ruled in favor of his electoral protest and declared him as the duly elected 12th senator.
The SET's final tally showed that Pimentel received 10,898,786 votes while Zubiri got 10,640,620.
Pimentel made history as it was the first time the SET proclaimed a defeated candidate as the rightful winner of a Senate post.
He ran again in 2013 under the administration banner in protest of Zubiri's inclusion in the slate of the United Nationalist Alliance. Pimentel placed eight while Zubiri lost in the senatorial race.
Pimentel, topnotcher in the 1990 Bar, is the current president of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) which fielded President Rodrigo Duterte in the 2016 polls.
The Pimentels, as well as Duterte, are advocates of federalism.
The younger Pimentel became part of the impeachment court that voted for the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona. He also chaired the Senate Blue Ribbon sub-committee which investigated the alleged corrupt practices of his former ally, Vice President Jejomar Binay, during the latter's term as mayor of Makati City.
Prior to his stint in the Senate, Koko served as a commissioner of the National Youth Commission representing Mindanao. He was also a professor at the University of the East College of Law and FEU Institute of Law – La Salle Business School, JD – MBA Program. —ALG, GMA News
