SENATE President Juan Miguel Zubiri yesterday said he hopes that rumors on an impending change in Senate leadership will finally come to an end after 17 senators, including him, have signed a manifesto of support for his leadership.
In a press conference, Zubiri said the “core group” of the majority bloc decided to come up with the manifesto amid persistent “rumors” of a coup, which a number of senators hinted emanated from the House of Representatives due to the rift between the two chambers of Congress because of the “people’s initiative” campaign in efforts to amend the Constitution.
The “core group” is composed of senators Joel Villanueva, Loren Legarda, Nancy Binay, Grace Poe, and Juan Edgardo Angara.
Zubiri on Tuesday afternoon said 14 senators have signed the manifesto of support for his leadership. Three more senators signed yesterday.
The other signatories are Christopher Go, Ronald dela Rosa, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, Lito Lapid, Francis Tolentino, Raffy Tulfo, Mark Villar, Robin Padilla, Jinggoy Estrada, and Ramon Revilla Jr.
Those who did not sign are Francis Escudero, Pia Cayetano, Alan Peter Cayetano, Risa Hontiveros, Aquilino Pimentel III, Imee Marcos, and Cynthia Villar.
Zubiri said Escudero, and the Cayetano siblings are out of the country.
He said he also signed the manifesto, which started circulating among the senators over the weekend, since “I was requested by the group.”
Zubiri said he talked with Marcos and the elder Villar who expressed their willingness to continue their support for his leadership once issues on the rules on how to tackle Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 have been resolved, among others.
When asked if there are senators who are dissatisfied with his leadership — the reason the coup rumors came out — Zubiri said, “I don’t want to discuss that anymore. I don’t want to comment, ina-address naman natin ang concerns nila (their concerns are already being addressed).
Zubiri said he was not actually threatened by the coup rumors because he serves at the pleasure of his colleagues.
He said the rumors definitely did not come from the Senate.
“Marami talaga maybe because of Cha-cha. I can’t speculate, I don’t want to make a guess. Pero yan ay kasama po sa trabaho natin (There are a lot of [outside pressure] maybe because of Cha-cha [Charter change]. I can’t speculate [where the rumors emanated], I don’t want to make a guess. But that [intrigues] are part of my job),” he said.
He said the core group decided to come out with the manifesto of support for his leadership to end the coup rumors.
Talks of an impending change in Senate leadership came up last week, suggesting that Senate president pro tempore Loren Legarda or Sen. Jinggoy Estrada could replace Zubiri.