Senator Alan Peter Cayetano posed a challenge on Friday to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV: Let’s resign from the Senate together.

Cayetano issued the challenge as he denied Trillanes’ allegation that he was leading an alleged ouster plot against Senate President “Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.

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Such allegation, he said, was just Trillanes’ “figment of imagination” as he had no plans to snatch the Senate leadership from Pimentel.

“Kung tingin ni Senator Trillanes ako ang problema, di sabay kaming mag resign kahit bukas. Kasi ako baligtad ang tingin ko, tingin ko sya ang problema sa Senado e,” Cayetano said at a press conference.

(If Senator Trillanes thinks I’m the problem, then I dare him to resign with me from the Senate, as early as tomorrow even. Because the way I see it, he’s the problem in the Senate.)

Sought for comment, Trillanes said in a text message: “Sya na muna kasi sya yung nangako na magre-resign kung hindi maso -solve yung crime, corruption at illegal drugs within three to six months.”

(He should go first because he’s the one who promised to resign if the crime, corruption and illegal drugs problems are not solved within three to six months.)

But Cayetano disclosed that he had offered once to resign at the Senate at the height of the leadership race, noting that he might have to do it anyway in the middle of this year if President Rodrigo Duterte would ask him to help his administration.

He also disclosed that the Senate presidency was also being given to him before “in a silver platter” but that he refused it because he did not want Liberal Party senators to be part of the majority bloc, particularly Senator Leila de Lima leading the Senate committee on justice.

“So sabi ko kay Senator Koko, pare kung gusto mo pipirma ako, magre-resign ako ng Senate tutal tutulong ako sa Pangulo at pagdating ng middle ng 2017 kukunin ako ng ating Pangulo para tumulong sa kanya,” Cayetano said.

“If ako ang problema, and you don’t want me in the Senate…Sabi nya (Pimentel), pare walang ganun, you’re welcome here, kelangan ka namin, tulong- tulong tayo,” he added.

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(I told Senator Koko, if you want me to sign, I will resign from the Senate, anyway I will be helping the President by mid-2017 and he would call on me to help him.

(If I am the problem, and you don’t want me in the Senate…He said, there’s nothing like that, you’re welcome here, we need you, let’s help one another.)

Cayetano said it would be “useless” to snatch the Senate presidency from Pimentel if he would join the Duterte administration after five or six months.

“It’s useless, sisirain ko lang ang pangalan ko kasi wala akong magagawa (I would just ruin my reputation because I won’t be able to achieve anything) within five months. I wanted it when I thought I had 12 months (in the Senate),” he further said.

Instead of sowing intrigues, Cayetano urged Trillanes to do something “very productive” for the administration. CDG/rga

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