Pimentel hopes for more unified opposition

MANILA, Philippines — Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III on July 7 expressed hope that the opposition is consolidating its forces one year into the second Marcos administration and ahead of the midterm elections.

“Let the opposition naturally develop,” the opposition senator said in an interview with “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News.

“They will have their common issues against the administration,” added Pimentel, the son of the late senator Nene Pimentel, who was jailed for opposing the dictatorship during the first Marcos administration.

Unfortunately for Pimentel, who is leading the opposition voice in the Senate as part of the minority with Risa Hontiveros, the PDP-Laban is split into two factions – the Pimentel-led one and the faction of former Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, which has allied with the administration.

“There was a big schism within my party. The other party does not want to be opposition and wants to be closely identified with the administration instead. That is what I am fixing now, that is the legal issue we have,” Pimentel said.

The senator lamented that the minority, which he shares with Hontiveros, is a mere “retail” bloc compared to the “supermajority” of administration lawmakers.

“We really need help from the opposition outside Congress. I hope they will be vocal and be felt in the succeeding years,” Pimentel said.

As to the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill which he opposes, Pimentel said he would be willing to help those who would question it before the Supreme Court.

“There will be a question, a challenge against the measure both on substance as well as procedure,” Pimentel said, citing the Senate leadership’s move to correct the bill outside plenary action and the lack of grounds to set up a wealth fund without surplus profit.

He urged President Marcos Jr. to bring back the Congress approved version of the MIF because it was far from his vision of the bill, which he certified as urgent, to be capitalized by pension money.

Returning a pet bill to Congress has precedent, Pimentel said, recalling the time former President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed the security of tenure bill despite it being his campaign promise to end contractualization.