Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III will run for the Senate presidency against Senator Francis Escudero.
“He will run against Senator Escudero and if we don’t make it we will be the new minority,” said Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri who was in Kabankalan City in Negros Occidental on Tuesday, July 1.
The veterans’ bloc in the Senate is supporting Sotto, he said.
Former Senate president Sotto, Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, Loren Legarda and Zubiri are the members of the veterans’ bloc in the Senate,
Zubiri said he is not satisfied with the current leadership of the Senate and is open to supporting other candidates for the Senate presidency.
Escudero is the current Senate president.
“I am for a leader of the Senate who will keep protecting the integrity and the traditions of the Senate,” Zubiri, who is also a former Senate president, said.
“I do not want a Senate president who is a dictatorial type, I don’t want us to be similar to other chambers where it is only one emperor who dictates all the instructions to the members of the body,” he said.
During his time he led through consultative leadership and consensus building, Zubiri said.
“I am praying that we have new leadership in the Senate”, he said.
It is being reported that Escudero has 13 senators behind him “but I’m hoping and praying that at the end of the day we all decide to have a Senate president that will continue the Senate’s independence as the last bastion on democracy,” Zubiri said.
“I’m not interested in the senate presidency, I just want to fight for the integrity of the Senate,” he said.
Zubiri said last year the Senate passed one of the most corrupt budgets in the history of Philippine government.
He has never seen a budget where more funds were allocated for the Department of Public Works and Highways over education, Zubiri said.
Zubiri said he wants a Senate that does what is right, legal and moral.
“My fear is one day the Senate will lose its relevance and people will just say abolish it,” he said.*