A DISQUALIFICATION case has been filed against reelectionist Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III at the Commission on Elections.
Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said he filed the disqualification case as Pimentel is no longer eligible to seek reelection in the May 2019 midterm polls.
“Sen. Pimentel is ineligible to run as such under the two consecutive term limit rule as provided under the 1987 Constitution,” Topacio said in a nine-page petition.
“Having already served for two consecutive terms as a senator, Pimentel is clearly ineligible to run for the same office as, otherwise, his election would allow him to serve for more than two consecutive terms,” said Topacio, referring to Section 4, Article 6 of the 1987 Constitution which states that no senator shall serve for more than two consecutive terms.
Pimentel first ran for senator in the 2007 polls and lost the 12th and last place to Sen. Juan Miguel F. Zubiri. He filed an electoral protest against Zubiri at the Senate Electoral Tribunal, which, in 2011, proclaimed Pimentel as the duly-elected senator.
Pimentel ran for re-election in the 2013 elections and won another six-year term.
Topacio said Pimentel was elected senator in 2007 and would have served for 18 years should he win in next year’s polls.
He also said that Zubiri’s entire term legally belongs to Pimentel because the SET declared him the winner in the 2007 elections.
Pimentel is confident that the Comelec would favor his bid for reelection. He called the disqualification case filed against as “nuisance.” (Leslie Ann G. Aquino and Vanne Elaine P. Terrazola)
