Senate President and president of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III expressed intention to include five incumbent senators in his senatorial slate for the 2019 midterm elections.
According to Pimentel, the five members of the group “The Force” deserve to be in the PDP-Laban slate for their hard work and support of the administration.
“The senators belonging to ‘The Force’ have been working hard to champion the administration’s agenda on infrastructure, education illegal drugs, corruption, among others. Our hard work is motivated by public interest not partisan politics,” he said in a statement.
The Force is composed of re-electionists Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara of the Laban ng Demokratiko ng Pilipino, Nancy Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance, Grace Poe and Cynthia Villar of the Nacionalista Party, and Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito.
The group earlier dismay after House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez released his proposed line-up for the senatorial slate of PDP-Laban which did not include the five senators.
Among those in the proposed slate are Senate President Koko Pimentel, former MMDA chair Francis Tolentino, Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, Maguindanao Rep. Zajid “Dong” Mangudadatu, Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman, Davao Rep. Karlo Nograles, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque and special assistant to the president Bong Go.
Pimentel stressed that the list released is not official since the party has to consult the line-up to the party’s chairman, President Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte won the presidential elections by landslide under the PDP-Laban in 2013.
Moreover, the party also leads the supermajority in the House of Representatives.
