Pimentel wife: I'm not a battered wife

DAGUPAN CITY -- The estranged wife of Senator Aquilino Pimentel III denied that she was a battered wife and appealed to senatorial candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri to spare her family from the ongoing political campaign.

"I ask those who claim to have been blessed with happy and perfect marriages to please not delight that others are in difficult or troubled marriages," Jewel May Lobaton-Pimentel said in a signed statement sent to reporters.

Zubiri, who is related to Jewel, accused Pimentel of beating his wife in a recent face off interview on ABS-CBN. Pimentel, who announced in May 2012 his separation from Jewel, denied the charge.

Jewel admitted having a met Zubiri and his wife, Audrey, with the help of a friend "sometime in July 2012" to ask help on the matter of the custody of her two sons with Pimentel. However, she said that she never mentioned during the meeting that she was a battered wife.

"I categorically state that I have never claimed nor complained to Migz Zubiri that I was a battered wife. In the close to twelve years that we lived together, my husband Koko Pimentel has never ever physically hurt me," Jewel said.

She said that when she informed the Zubiri couple that she already got her children, the Zubiris promised to her "that their family decided not to use my marital issues with Koko Pimentel in any of Migz Zubiri's propaganda in his Senate bid in 2013."

"My marital issues are not national issues. And my children have been greatly affected. Please spare my two sons, as they are mere children aged 8 and 3 years old, respectively," she added.  
Zubiri resigned as senator in August 3, 2011 following allegations of poll fraud. More than a week after his resignation, the Senate Electoral Tribunal declared Pimentel the 12th winning senator in the 2007 midterm elections.

Pimentel decided to run under the Liberal Party-led coalition Team PNoy after the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), which has forged a coalition with his party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas nang Bayan, picked Zubiri as part of its senatorial lineup.

Zubiri's attempt to mend fences with Pimentel proved futile. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)