Sen. Vicente Sotto III has come forward to clarify his role in the ongoing Senate leadership battle, saying he was personally behind the push to install Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian as the chamber’s next Senate president.
Sotto made the disclosure Sunday, May 24, to counter the impression that he had been uninvolved in the minority bloc’s maneuvering.
“I was asked why I have been silent re Senate leadership,” Sotto told reporters. “Wrong! I was the one who brought out the idea of making Sherwin as SP!”
Whether Gatchalian would secure the votes needed to formally take the post during Monday’s plenary session remained uncertain, with Sotto saying it “depends.”
The minority bloc needs only one defector from the current majority of 12 to flip the chamber, a task made easier by the continued absence of Sen. Ronald dela Rosa.
Sotto also directly challenged claims made by Sen. Imee Marcos that a meeting among opposition senators involved discussions on Charter change and a constituent assembly. He backed Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s earlier denial, saying the gathering was a casual dinner with no such agenda.
“She is wrong. Ping (Lacson) is right. We never discussed con-ass,” Sotto said.
“In one dinner with some golf friends and Speaker Bojie (Dy), he mentioned an idea of suggesting a regional Senate representation. I never said it’s OK. Her (Imee) source doesn’t know how to listen,” Sotto explained.
Sotto added that if constitutional amendments were to be entertained at all, the focus should be on lowering the age requirements for presidential and senatorial candidates.
Lacson, for his part, addressed questions about Gatchalian’s qualifications to preside over Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial despite not being a lawyer, noting that the Senate president acts as a moderator within a court of 24 senator-judges — not as the sole arbiter.
He framed the minority bloc’s push as an effort to restore institutional credibility, not to shape the outcome of the trial. Gatchalian’s installation remains the bloc’s lone “non-negotiable” condition as its 11 members work to peel away support from the existing majority.
“The primary or main concern of the 11 of us is to restore the Senate,” Lacson said.
