MANILA – The Supreme Court, sitting as Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET), has dismissed the two quo warranto petitions filed against Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III following his win in the 2019 midterm elections.
The twin petitions, which sought the invalidation of Pimentel’s victory asserting that Pimentel has already exhausted the two term limit under the Constitution, was dismissed due to lack of merit.
Two quo warranto petitions were filed against Pimentel by private citizens Reymar Mansilungan from Mercedes, Camarines Sur and Efren Adan who is a senior citizen from Manila before the SET on June last year.
Based on their petition, allowing Pimentel to occupy a third consecutive Senate term would violate the Constitution which only allows individuals to be elected for two consecutive six-year terms as a Senator.
The SET ruling, however, said that for that disqualification argument to stand, it is a requisite that a senator has fully served two terms.
It was noted in the decision that involuntary severance from office for any length of time short of the full term provided by law amounts to an interruption of continuity of service.
“The involuntary interrupted term, cannot, in the context of the disqualification rule, be considered as one term for purposes of counting the term threshold,” the SET ruling stated.
“Respondent was not prohibited to run and be elected for the 2019-2025 Senatorial term as he has yet to serve two consecutive Senatorial terms in full within the contemplation of prevailing law and jurisprudence,” it added.
Pimentel first won a Senate seat in the 2007 polls but he was only proclaimed winner in August 2011 after the SET ruled in favor of his election protest against Juan Miguel Zubiri.
He was re-elected as senator in 2013. The Commission on Elections allowed the former Senate President’s 2019 candidacy since he did not fully serve the 2007-2013 senatorial term./PN
