“We will try to convince him to stay put. I believe in him as a leader. He is very, very qualified,” Estrada said during a press briefing at the Senate press office.

Pimentel had refused to give details of his plans, saying he does not want to wash dirty linen in public but would meet hit colleagues in caucus on Monday.

The former Senate President was apparently irked by the actuation of some of his colleagues who shot down  the four-week recess in the proposed Senate calendar starting Sept. 24 that Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan drafted. He reportedly had given his assent to the draft resolution spelling out the proposed calendar.

Estrada said he has no foreknowledge of the proposed Senate calendar.

He stressed that the other senators should have been consulted on the proposed calendar even before it was discussed on the Senate floor.

Opposition Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile was very vocal during the debate on the proposed calendar in pushing for a Monday-to-Friday plenary session so that the Senate can accelerate its job and that the people will see senators as workaholics, not idlers.

Senator Estrada, son of deposed President Estrada, said he heard of Pimentel’s plan to resign through the media and not through text messages from Pimentel himself.

“I respect my (wedding) godfather so much,” the young Estrada said.