By Ellson Quismorio

Ruling party Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) will neither be sanctioning nor investigating Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III for his supposed violation of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) quarantine protocol during his visit Tuesday night at Makati Medical Center (MMC).

“We will not initiate any probe on him unless may mag-raise sa party (unless someone raises it in the party), [but] I don’t think so,” PDP-Laban Spokesman and Surigao del Sur 2nd district Rep. Johnny Pimentel said in an interview.

Sen. Pimentel (not related to the spokesman), president of PDP-Laban drew flak from the medical and online community Wednesday following his admission that his COVID-19 test result turned out positive.

This was just a few hours after he accompanied his wife Kathryn to MMC where the latter was supposed to give birth. The allegation is that the senator already knew he was positive for the disease at that time, meaning his actions exposed several hospital staff to the virus.

“Si Koko naman is a very straightforward person. I don’t think gagawa siya nang ganun. Tingin ko hindi niya talaga alam at that time (Koko is a very straightforward person. I don’t think he would knowingly expose the hospital staff. I think he really didn’t know at that time),” said Rep. Pimentel, who is also a Deputy Speaker.

“According to him, nalaman naman niya yung gabing yun 9 p.m. [Tuesday] (he only learned of the positive result at 9 p.m. Tuesday). He was at the hospital 7 p.m., let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Inexplain naman niya na nagpatest siya (He explained that we underwent a test), there was no result [yet]. We believe him,” he said of the senator.

Sen. Pimentel was exposed to a COVID-19 positive individual during a Senate hearing last March 5.

Asked how the firestorm from the protocol breach is affecting the ruling party, Rep. Pimentel said: “Wala naman (We’re not affected). We stand behind him (Sen. Pimentel). We give our full support to him.”

He said he has been monitoring the health condition of other PDP-Laban members through their Viber thread and so far, no one else has said that he or she was infected.

Rep. Pimentel couldn’t help but comment that the MMC situation was blown out of proportion. “Pinalaki nang pinalaki eh.”