MANILA - To succeed in what could be his last bid at an elected government position before possibly returning to the private sector, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel knows that more has to be done than just having a prominent political surname and being associated with a popular president.

Being President of the ruling PDP-Laban party, Pimentel has enjoyed the support of President Rodrigo Duterte and his colleagues in Senate, who chose him to lead the upper chamber midway into his second term.

But the eldest son of former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel III said the support of the administration and his political pedigree do not guarantee him victory in the increasingly cutthroat Senate race this year.

“We will know by May if that’s enough. I will not just depend on those two factors. I need to go out in the hustings to explain to the people what are the issues of the day, what will you do when you become a senator and your own personal advocacies so that they can judge if your advocacies answer their needs,” Koko Pimentel told ABS-CBN News.

Pimentel indeed knows that banking on his surname and depending on a friendly political climate may not be enough to seal a win.

In 2007, seizing on the strong public dissatisfaction with then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, he ran for Senate but did not get enough votes to post a decisive victory. He protested his loss and grabbed the last spot in the upper chamber four years after the elections.

He is now seeking a fresh 6-year term in 2019 but even this has not been easy despite being head of the ruling party. Two lawyers asked the Comelec to disqualify him on the basis of the term limits set by the Constitution. The poll body eventually ruled in Pimentel’s favor, saying he did not fully serve his first term as senator.

Having served as a senator for nearly 8 years, Pimentel, who topped the 1990 Bar exams, said he is now more prepared and confident as a policymaker.

“When it comes to my Senate bids, I am now more experienced. I can talk about Senate procedure … Before, I just read about these things,” said Pimentel, who worked as a law professor prior to joining the government.

In case he wins in his reelection bid, Pimentel said he would continue and improve on the legacy of his dad, considered the father of the seminal Local Government Code.

“I want to inherit the legacy of my father to the nation, the Local Government Code, as well as his lesser-known legacy which is the Cooperative Code,” he said.

Pimentel also wants to make sure that the federalism pitch, a crusade of his father, remains alive in the next Congress.

He said the local government and the cooperative codes both empower the countrysides and are in line with his principles of federalism.

“To cement the Pimentel legacy, I will modernize and update these two codes, which actually lead to federalism. If the values in both codes are appreciated by the people, they will also appreciate federalism,” he said.

“My ultimate legacy would be if I’m able to convince the people of the benefits of federalism Philippine style, which is actually just empowering the local governments.”

In campaign sorties, Pimentel brands himself as the person who fulfilled Duterte’s legislative agenda, saying it was under his stint as Senate President that Congress passed laws granting free tuition in state universities and colleges, extending the validity of passports and driver’s license, and free irrigation, among others.

He is also promising to end the imposition of travel tax, a proposal that will surely be welcomed by avid travelers, especially the youth.

“Pinag-aralan ko ang mga pinangako ni President Duterte noong kampanya at sinugurado ko na ang pangako ni President Duterte ay di mapapako. In less than two years, nagawa namin iyon,” Pimentel said in a sortie in Negros Occidental last March 8.

(I studied the promises of the President during the campaign and I made sure that his promises are fulfilled. In less than two years, we did it.)

PIMENTEL CHARTS NEW COURSE FOR PDP-LABAN

Once “moribund”, as the President described it, Pimentel’s PDP-Laban rose to prominence after the stunning victory of Duterte, the maverick mayor from the south who had earned both notoriety and admiration for his tough stance against illegal drugs and criminality.

Pimentel said that while many politicians trooped to the PDP-Laban after Duterte’s election victory, the party will have to assess the status of its members after this year’s election.

“We have to agree why we belong to one parrty. We must have shared values . . . There was a mass influx into the party just because they needed to be close to someone,” he said.

“We will take stock of our inventory of members and remind the members that we have a party constitution where the values of the party can be found.”

PDP-Laban was founded by Nene Pimentel and other like-minded figures during the oppressive martial law years under former President Ferdinand Marcos.

Koko Pimentel’s support for Duterte, who has made no secret of his admiration for Marcos and his heirs, has thus placed him in a peculiar situation and put the party in a new direction.

University of the Philippines political science professor Aries Arugay said alliances formed among erstwhile political foes are no longer new in local politics.

For critics, PDP-Laban’s support for a pro-Marcos figure such as Duterte is a departure from the party’s founding values.

“There are no permanent alliances, only permanent interests. One thing that our professional politicians have mastered was really to tell what’s the political climate and where the sands are shifting. At the end, they bet on Duterte and of course, they want to reap the benefits from that gamble. When you gamble and you win, you win big, for sure you want to maximize, optimize your benefits,” Arugay told ABS-CBN News.

“If we make parties accountable for their past actions, all the parties in Philippine politics would be tainted.”

It is also under the younger Pimentel that the party sought closer ties with the Communist Party of China, reflecting Duterte’s cozying up to Beijing.

Pimentel also joins Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, the daughter of the late dictator, in the administration-backed slate Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), led by Duterte’s daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. Pimentel and Marcos have been seen sharing the stage in some HNP sorties, but Pimentel sees nothing wrong with this.

“I got used to it. We are both carried by HNP. Imee Marcos is the guest candidate of the PDP-Laban, upon the suggestion of our party chairman [President Duterte]. They are welcome to join our rallies. Imee has been joining. I’ve gotten used to it,” Pimentel told ANC.

In a separate phone interview, he said Duterte’s support for the Marcoses should not be equated to an abandonment of the party’s values.

“[President] Duterte has been a member of the party since the 1980s. It’s not that PDP-Laban is aligning itself with President Durterte after he spoke favorably of the Marcoses. He took his oath way back in the 1980s,” Pimentel said. “It’s not that we became Marcosian.”

Pimentel also maintained the Marcos-era martial law and the abuses associated with it can never be justified.

“If you ask me about the Marcos martial law years, and if these were good years, beneficial years for the country, I would still say no because of the suppression of democracy. We had no basic freedoms,” he told ANC.

Nene Pimentel, meanwhile, downplayed Imee Marcos’ newfound link with his son and the PDP-Laban, telling ABS-CBN News: “That’s part of the game. As a matter of fact, you can also appear on the same stage with your opponent. That’s not necessarily a contentious issue.”

Pimentel, however, stressed the late dictator Marcos’ children do not deserve higher posts in government if they will “glorify what their father did.”

“It’s very hard to justify the Marcos era. And for example, I always say, how many kilometers of paved roads or how many beautiful structures has a person to compensate the loss of one life?” the older Pimentel said.

“There’s a saying that the sins of the father must not be passed on to the heir. That’s correct. But if the heir glorifies what was done, that means he or she sanctions that kind of an actuation.”

In the 2013 polls, Koko Pimentel had a falling out with Jejomar Binay, the vice president at the time who was fielding his own slate under the opposition United Nationalist Alliance, after he expressed reservations about the inclusion in its Senate lineup of Miguel Zubiri, who beat him to take the last spot in the 2007 Senate.

Pimentel eventually joined Team PNoy, a slate backed by then President Benigno Aquino III of the now-opposition Liberal Party, as he had issues being in the same lineup with Zubiri.

Zubiri resigned in 2011 over allegations of fraud, paving the way for Pimentel’s entry into the upper chamber.

A key Liberal Party figure, detained Sen. Leila de Lima, also served as Pimentel’s lawyer in his election protest. De Lima was arrested in February 2017 just outside the Senate over drug allegations, which she has denied and branded as political persecution. At the time, Pimentel was Senate President.

• THROWBACK: De Lima won cases for Koko, Alan Peter as their lawyer

The composition of Pimentel’s friends and foes in the political arena may have evolved in his relatively short stint in national politics, but he said such dynamics is inevitable. He said what’s important is he stuck it out with his political party.

“What is really objectionable is turncoatism or people who abandon their comrades, abandon their party mates just to be close to the person in power, and at the same time being ready to abandon the person in power for as soon as he is no longer the ‘flavor of the month’. Hindi po tayo ganyan, we don’t belong to that kind of category,” Koko said.

“I have stuck it out with one political party. If my party enters into a coalition agreement with some party, we honor that coalition agreement.”

CONCESSIONS?

For Atienza, however, the seeming concessions made by the Pimentels as they aligned themselves with Duterte’s principles show that the PDP-Laban has also suffered from transactional politics.

“It’s very different now from the roots of the party, which is unfortunate, given in 2016, ano ba ang kampanya ng (what was the campaign thrust of) PDP-Laban and the President? [They were] against traditional parties, against corrupt politicians. So they are negating the image that they campaigned for in 2016,” Atienza told ABS-CBN News.

Koko Pimentel’s defense of Duterte and his war on illegal drugs and other controversial policies may have also put him in a difficult position within his family, as his sister, Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana, is a commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights, an independent government agency which has constantly been the subject of the President’s tirades.

“My sister as a commissioner of the human rights commission has her own obligations, has her own tasks. Gawin niya ang trabaho niya (She should do her job),” Pimentel said. “As for me, I always remind our law enforcers of the war against drugs, you do it in accordance with the law.”

The family patriarch, meanwhile, said he keeps a hands-off stance when it comes to such dynamics within the family.

“I don’t interfere with their roles. If they do not deserve their job, people should be free to criticize them. That’s my attitude,” Nene Pimentel said.

But will a fresh victory in the Senate for Koko Pimentel be that crucial for Duterte? Atienza does not think so.

“It’s not the same as let’s say Bong Go winning or Bato [Ronald dela Rosa] winning,” Atienza said.

“Kasi si Koko has, well, may sarili na rin siyang pangalan before, although he benefited under Duterte because he became Senate President. He has carved a name [for himself]. Mayroon na rin siyang separate base. May name recall na rin siya.”

(Koko has had his own name before, although he benefited under Duterte because he became Senate President. He has carved a name for himself. He has his own separate base.)

Go, the President’s long-time aide, and dela Rosa, the former chief of the Philippine National Police and Bureau of Corrections, both newcomers in the national political arena, are perceived to be the two candidates whom the President is betting big on due to their almost familial ties.

“I think President Duterte will not really reap anything from his victory,” Arugay said of Pimentel, “but surely PDP-Laban will suffer if he loses.”

LAST ELECTION?

Pimentel’s entry into the national political scene did not come easy, but it seems the senator has no problem losing a government post, saying there’s life for him outside politics.

Despite his impressive credentials and his familiar surname, he failed in his first bid at a Senate seat in 2007, a heartbreaking loss that harkened back to his father’s own defeat in the 1995 midterm polls.

The elder Pimentel placed 15th in that year’s Senate race and protested his loss, claiming he was a victim of “dagdag-bawas” (vote padding and shaving). His protest was dismissed by the Senate Electoral Tribunal after he won in the 1998 Senate elections.

Instead of running in the succeeding polls like his father, Koko Pimentel did not drop his poll protest and four years later entered the Senate after Zubiri’s resignation.

“Of course that was really painful, hurtful and sad. Hindi lang ako naghintay ng 4 years and 2 months ah. Hindi hintay iyon; struggle iyon (I did not just wait; it was a struggle) . . . We struggled hard,” Pimentel said.

“What is the point [of not running in 2010]? The point was to prove that there was cheating, and cheating and electoral fraud was getting worse.”

Midway into his second term in 2016, he was elected Senate president by his colleagues, making history in the Philippine Senate by being the first son to hold the same position as his father.

The four years Pimentel lost as he forged on in his electoral protest could have been used to etch his name in the public’s mind and prepare himself for a higher post in government. His father, after all, ran for vice president in 1992 after completing his first term as senator but lost to the popular former actor and senator Joseph Estrada.

But the younger Pimentel told ABS-CBN News he has no plan of seeking to run for higher office and that he may even opt to retire from politics once he steps down from the Senate in 2025, in case he succeeds in his reelection bid this year.

Aside from being limited by the Constitution from seeking another term as senator, Pimentel said that, unlike his father, being in the executive branch is not his cup of tea.

“Ang father ko kasi . . . multi-talented siya. He’s a good policymaker and he’s a good executive. Ako, ang pag-assess ko sa sarili ko, I want stick to policymaking,” he said.

(My father is multi-talented. He’s a good policymaker and he’s a good executive too. As I assessed by myself, I knew I want to stick to policy-making.)

In case Pimentel changes his mind, he should overhaul his image and make himself more endearing to voters, Atienza said.

“He does not have that charisma. He has name recall. He has a family name, which somehow has earned respectability,” Atienza told ABS-CBN News.

“Some Senate presidents became larger than life. They pushed for very strong reforms. You have [Jovito] Salonga, even [Ferdinand] Marcos.”

Arugay said Pimentel’s image also took a hit after PDP-Laban failed to field a full Senate slate despite its status as the ruling party.

Pimentel’s premature departure as Senate leader; the unceremonious ouster as Speaker of partymate and Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez; and the rise of Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), the regional party formed by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, also took its toll on the ruling party, Arugay said.

“Hugpong was created because, in my view, PDP-Laban has become a less credible party, an institutional party shell for the president. Even if Sara claims that it is a regional party, it is not behaving like a regional party because it is campaigning all over the country,” Arugay told ABS-CBN News.

“Its (PDP-Laban) power has also somehow weakened because one of its major political projects, charter change, also did not materialize yet.”

Pimentel said PDP-Laban and HNP should not be pitted against each other since they are both under the “Duterte umbrella.”

“But should it (HNP) decide to become a national political party, I’d still welcome it,” he said.

“I just hope people will look at the ideology or program of government or the principles of the party. That should be the reason in joining the party. Otherwise, if it’s personality-based, there will be no permanence of membership.”

SURVEY PERFORMANCE

Pimentel landed in the 9th to 14th range (35.6 percent support) in the February Pulse Asia survey, lower than the 5th to 11th range (45.5 percent support) he received in the January survey.

But he is unfazed, saying he had a strong showing in the surveys even though he has not yet released a single second in television advertisement.

“The campaign is already around 35 days old and I have not aired a single second of TV advertisement, yet I’m still in the top 12, so I’m happy,” he said at the time of this interview.

Whatever fate brings to Pimentel, it seems the lawmaker is enjoying his life with his new wife, Kathryna Yu Pimentel, who heads PDP-Laban’s civic arm and has been a regular fixture in HNP and PDP-Laban sorties.

“Politics is not my career. While I’m still in my productive years, if you would like to contribute something to policy-making, it’s ultimately the people’s decision and a seat from the Senate is a gift from the people,” Koko Pimentel said.

“There’s life after the election. Whatever happens, ang buhay ng tao ‘di lang siya happy lang ako, dahil may posisyon ako. Hindi dapat ganoon.”

(There’s life after the election. Whatever happens, a man’s life and happiness should not depend on the position he holds. That should not be the case.)