‘No power sharing in Senate’

MANILA, Philippines — Senators from the majority bloc are eyeing Sen. Loren Legarda as a future Senate president, but this is not a power sharing or term sharing scheme, Senate President Vicente Sotto III clarified yesterday.

In an interview over True FM, Sotto said it was not accurate to call it a term sharing agreement, which he said started as a joke during their Senate lounge meeting.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan sparked the speculations after posting a group photo with Sotto, Legarda and other members of the majority with the caption “Powersharing.”

Pangilinan explained that the post was meant to be a joke and not about a done deal, saying it was merely chatter among majority senators in the Senate lounge.

According to Sotto, what actually happened was that he and other members of the majority assured Legarda that she would be elected Senate president after the 2027 budget season, or in 2028, before the end of her term.

Sotto said Legarda was amenable to the idea even though it would give her only a few months as Senate president before the end of her 20th Congress term. She is eligible for reelection.

“Not exactly term sharing. We plan to elect her as the first woman Senate president after the 2027 budget. In other words, in 2028, before her term ends,” Sotto said.

“That is the plan. So it’s not really term sharing. Because in term sharing, 1.5-1.5 years split, or a year each. Not exactly. That is not the right term. The right term is we plan to make her Senate president towards the end of her term, end of 20th Congress,” he added.

For now, Sotto said he is confident of retaining the leadership post with the support of 15 senators.

Meeting with minority

Before the tense Wednesday session, Legarda met with Cayetano and minority Senators Imee Marcos and Jinggoy Estrada in her office, fueling rumors of the coup that fizzled out later in the afternoon, replaced with talk that Legarda and Sotto had agreed on term-sharing.

The Senate minority, led by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, have reportedly attempted, but failed, to be the new majority by recruiting Legarda with a promise of making her their candidate as Senate president.

‘Madame President’

Meanwhile, Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri explained his kidding Legarda as “Madam President” before adjourning Wednesday’s session.

Zubiri said he was merely expressing his support for her as the next Senate President, citing her experience in the Senate as his pro tempore and also a former majority leader.

“She was my Senate President Pro Temp in my first term as Senate President in the 19th Congress. Of course, I know her capabilities. She’s very well and able and very qualified to be a future Senate President. So I said, future Senate President,” Zubiri said in an ambush interview yesterday.

Zubiri said there was no “formal term sharing,” only that what started as a “joke” for Sotto to turn over the reins to Legarda in 2028 could end up being a possibility.

“I made a joke saying, maybe possible by the end of the term of Senator Sotto. Maybe she can be Senate President, the first woman Senate President. And he gladly agreed and he said, ‘Yes, why not?’” Zubiri said.

“So it’s not official, but the understanding was in the latter part of Senator Sotto’s term as Senate President of the 20th Congress that we will elect the first woman Senate President in the history of this Congress. I think that’s an exciting time. Better that way so that the majority remains solid,” he added.

Instead of calling it term sharing, Zubiri said it should instead be called an “agreement that there will be a change in leadership within the majority… if we still have the support of all the majority members.”

“When I mentioned to her that I think that the Senate President is seriously looking into that possibility, I think congratulations are in order to our hopefully future female, first female Senate President,” Zubiri said of Legarda, the country’s longest serving female senator with four terms already.

Legarda denies

For her part, Legarda played coy about a reported “power sharing” agreement with Sotto.

“I have no idea. I did not hear it yet. That’s why I don’t want to comment on something that I have no idea of, and I was not informed,” Legarda said in an ambush interview.

Legarda instead took the opportunity during the interview to ask the media to talk to her about her advocacies instead, like culture, the arts, and climate change.

Legarda led a Senate culture and the arts hearing on Wednesday about her proposal to cascade all cultural agencies into one Department of Culture and make heritage and the arts part of the country’s agenda.

“May I ask you to have the same passion and interest other than politics?” Legarda said.

She dodged further questions with a smile: “Ang ganda ng ngiti noh?”