MANILA, Philippines – Don’t ask me. Ask them.

This was the response of Sen Antonio Trillanes IV when asked about his previous statement claiming Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile would be ousted by early February.

On Monday, January 21, Trillanes predicted Enrile will be replaced before the Senate adjourns on February 9 in preparation for elections. He said he only needs 4 Liberal Party senators to complete the 13 votes needed to oust the 88-year-old senator.

But in a vote initiated by Enrile that afternoon, 11 senators voted against Enrile’s offer to quit his post.

When asked about his prediction, Trillanes said it wasn’t up to him. “Like what i said earlier, our numbers would be enough if the LP senators will join. If that won’t happen, then you better ask the LP leaders why they supported a leader of the opposition,” he told Rappler.

“It’s not my problem.”

He said he wasn’t surprised by the votes, but refuses to close the doors to the possibility of removing Enrile.

Trillanes is running for re-election under the administration’s slate. He sits precariously in rank 10-11 in the latest Social Weather Stations survey, dropping from his rank 5-7 in August after he first picked a fight with Enrile in September.

But he said the rankings don’t worry him.

“I’m a fatalist. If its really meant to happen then it will. Just like in 2004, no one gave me chance but apparently it was fate for me to be senator and I leave it at that,” he said.

Enrile is a leader of the adminstration slate’s so-called constructive opposition, the United Nationalist Alliance. – Rappler.com