Philippine senator Francis Pangilinan aims for senate presidency

In order to be elected to the senate presidency, an incumbent senator must get the support of majority of the 24-member of Philippine senate.

Pangilinan says, he may have the numbers to bag the presidency.

Senator Franklin Drillon, a fellow re-elected senator and former senate president may have to share his 6-year term as Senate president. Drillon is a fellow member and officer of the Liberal Party and likewise seeking the senate presidency.

Interviewed over dwIZ radio, Pangilinan said that after holding talks with colleagues in the Senate, he found out that whether or not senators supported his party mate, President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, they recognized that the latter won a landslide victory and that the people have decided to make him the country’s leader.

“And that’s why I am confident and very optimistic because of what had happened and this big support for Noynoy, that I would earn the trust of at least 13 senators,” he said.

It was reported in the media that President-elect Noynoy Aquino's sister Kris Aquino-Yap is supporting the election of Pangilinan.

Aside from Pangilinan and Drilon, Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. is also expected to contest the top Senate post.

Villar, a former senate president lost to Sen. Noynoy Aquino in the recently-concluded presidential election.

Senator Pangilinan is married to the very popular singer-actress Sharon Cuneta.

The young aspiring senator was born August 24, 1963 in Manila. He finished high school at DeLa Salle University. After high graduating, he enrolled at the University of the Philippines college of law.

After serving as city councilor of Quezon City and later as congressman, Pangilinan left the country along with wife Sharon to pursue a post-graduate study in the US. Pangilinan finished his Masters of Science in Public Administration degree at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in 1997.