Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III can't seem to grasp the reason behind the call for Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino to resign from Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP).

Newly-installed PDP President Senator Robinhood Padilla asked Tolentino on Thursday, July 25 to step down as party vice president for Luzon and as a member so he could attend to his added duties as the new Senate majority leader.

Padilla belongs to the PDP faction led by its chairman, former president Rodrigo Duterte.

"Dahilan sa bagong mandato na inyong hinaharap sa Senado, buong pagpapakumbaba kong iminumungkahi na marahil po ay mas makabubuti ang iyong pagbibitiw bilang opisyal at kasapi ng PDP-Laban. Sa ganang akin po lamang, ang mungkahing ito po ay upang maiwasan din natin ang pagkuwestiyon, kung magkakaroon man, sa ating pagiging patas sa pagtugon sa mga isyu, lalo sa mga usaping pampulitikal (Because of your new mandate in the Senate I humbly propose that it would be good if you resigned as an official and member of PDP-Laban. This is to prevent questioning of our fairness in addressing issues, especially political ones)," Padilla said in his letter to Tolentino.

On the other hand, Pimentel, who belongs to the party's other faction that currently has a pending case before the Supreme Court (SC), said in a radio interview over DWIZ on Saturday, July 27, that he was confused as to why Padilla was creating issues within their group. 

"Ewan ko bakit sila nagke-create ng issue sa loob ng grupo nila pero sa mata ng PDP-Laban faction ko...sa mata namin hindi namin sila kamiyembro kaya wala akong pakialam sa ginagawa nila (I don't know why they're creating issues within their group but in the eyes of my PDP-Laban faction...in our eyes they're not part of our group so I don't really care what they're up to)," he said.

However, he questioned the reason cited by Padilla in asking Tolentino to resign.

"Ano ngayon kung majority leader si Senator Tolentino, hindi ba part din ng majority si Senator Robin Padilla? So anong problema? Di ko nakukuha ang problema (So what if Senator Tolentino is the majority leader, isn't Senator Robin Padilla part of the majority? So what's the problem? I don't get it)," he said.

Tolentino has since shrugged off the issue, stating that the response to victims of Typhoon "Carina" should be prioritized over politics.