Zubiri says Koko Pimentel should be allowed to seek re-election

Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri expressed support Thursday for the bid of Senator Aquilino Pimentel III to seek re-election amid the disqualification case filed against the latter.

“Senator Koko Pimentel should be able to sit this next term, he should be able to run this next term. For the record, I was saying this as his main rival for that post in 2007 to 2013,” Zubiri said during the weekly forum Kapihan sa Senado.

He said Pimentel only occupied the last two years of his supposed six-year term.

“(Pimentel) was not able to serve the full term, not even a major portion of the term. I think he should be able to seek reelection,” said the majority leader.

In October, lawyer Ferdinand Topacio filed a disqualification case against Pimentel claiming that the latter could no longer run for senator in the upcoming mid-term elections because he was already on his second consecutive term.

Pimentel first won a Senate seat in the 2007 polls, but he was only proclaimed winner in August 2011 after the Senate Electoral Tribunal ruled in favor of his election protest against Zubiri.

He was again elected as senator in 2013 and has only been holding the position for seven years now because of the Zubiri case.

“Sana naman hindi siya madisqualify. I don’t think it would be fair for him,” Zubiri said of Pimentel.

Pimentel had contested Zubiri's victory in the 2007 senatorial elections. Pimentel ranked 13th in the 2007 senatorial elections with 10,987,347 votes, Zubiri scraped through at 12th with 11,005,866 votes. Pimentel, however, claimed he lost the 12th spot due to poll fraud.

In August 2011, or more than four yours after his election, Zubiri resigned from the Senate, allowing Pimentel to complete the remainder of the six-year term. — MDM, GMA News