SENATOR Juan Miguel Zubiri on Friday took the cudgels for Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Senator Richard Gordon amid threats to remove them from their Senate posts.
Zubiri, a colleague of Pimentel and Gordon in the majority bloc, said he believes that the two will survive the attack on their integrity and capability to carry out the mandates of their offices by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
“Their mettle as lawmakers has been tested and as mature politicians they both display what it takes to face the challenges head on. I have full trust and confidence in them to continue in their current positions,” Zubiri said.
He said both Pimentel and Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, are doing their jobs well.
“And I see no need to replace them,” Zubiri said.
On Thursday, Trillanes had threatened to work toward Pimentel’s ouster as Senate president if he did not remove Gordon as chairman of the Blue Ribbon committee, saying Gordon was acting like a defense lawyer for President Rodrigo Duterte.
At least 13 votes from the 23-member Senate are needed to remove Pimentel and install a new Senate president, which Lacson said would be “extremely improbable” since the majority bloc remained supportive of Pimentel.
Pimentel is one of the officials of President Duterte’s PDP-Laban party, of which Zubiri is also a member.
Sought for comment, Pimentel said Trillanes can go ahead with his plans since this is a “free country.”
