Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. Friday defended his son from the cutting remarks made against him by Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri.

Pimentel also brushed aside Zubiri’s threat to file a motion asking the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) to cite his son, defeated opposition senatorial candidate Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, in contempt for preempting the results of the electoral protest he filed before the tribunal.

The young Pimentel earlier claimed that he is winning in the recount of votes of the 2007 senatorial elections wherein he lost the 12th slate to Zubiri.

Zubiri, together with his lawyers, Romulo Macalintal and George Garcia, refuted Pimentel’s claim last Thursday and said they are mulling filing a motion asking the SET to cite the lawyer for contempt for predicting the outcome of the electoral protest.

But the minority leader told reporters in a text message that his son has the right to publicize his fight against electoral cheating.

“Koko’s protest is a public issue about which people have the right to know,” the senator said.

“Moreover it stands to reason that it’s the election cheat who should be cited for contempt of the people and Constitution,” he added.

The young Pimentel maintained he was cheated during the May 2007 senatorial elections and that the SET had already resolved last year that 98.15 of ballots cast in six Maguindanao and Lanao del Norte towns were spurious.

The six towns were part of the nine pilot municipalities identified by Pimentel as areas where massive cheating victimized him and favored Zubiri.

The nullification of the spurious ballots under the Loong vs Tulawis doctrine as set by the House Electoral Tribunal is expected to gain for Pimentel 65,261 votes, which would be more than enough for him to eclipse Zubiri’s presumptive lead of 17,251 votes before the recount.

“The people want to know who really won because they would not allow someone with a dubious electoral mandate to craft laws on their behalf,” said the lawmakers’ son in a statement.