Officials of the ruling political party Partido Demokratiko ng Pilipinas-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) are setting aside talks on the 2022 national elections, telling their members to first focus on helping the government in fighting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
"Concentrate first on overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic...Now is not the time to talk about politics," said Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel, former president and now executive vice chairman of the party led by President Duterte.
He, however, admitted that discussions about their standard bearer for the 2022 polls cannot be held off for long since the filing of candidacies will be in October.
"We, political parties, have no more choice but to talk about and tackle 'political matters'. No choice since we are political parties," he told reporters.
Pimentel was agreeing with PDP-Laban Vice Chairman and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, who called on their members to support the Duterte administration's COVID-19 immunization program.
"To have a successful rollout of the , let us relegate to the back burner the issue of who the party will endorse or support as our standard bearer in the 2022 national elections," Cusi said in message to party officers and members on Friday, February 19.
"While it is important that we maintain our status as the ruling party after 2022, we should keep our immediate focus on meeting the extraordinary challenges of the pandemic and other natural disasters facing our constituencies," he added.
Cusi said the Duterte administration's success in the vaccination program, anyway, "is our country's success and ultimately the party's success, too".
PDP-Laban Auditor and Senator Christopher "Bong" Go echoed this position, saying that while he was thankful to those who have been urging him to run for higher government office, he maintained that he was "focused" on his mandate as a senator.
"Ayaw ko pong pag-usapan ang pulitika, napakaaga pa po. Ang importante po malagpasan natin ang pandemyang ito dahil kung hindi natin malagpasan ang pandemyang ito, wala na po tayong pulitikang pag-uusapan (I don't want to talk about politics, it's still too early. What is important is that we get through this pandemic because if we do not recover from this, we will have no politics to talk about)," Go said.
He also dismissed calls urging him to become Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio’s running mate should the former decide to run for president. But he said he will support the presidential daughter, who he said was "very much qualified".
President Duterte has repeatedly discouraged his daughter from running for president. Duterte-Carpio also maintained that she will not gun for the presidential post, even as her supposed supporters have already launched a campaign, urging her to run in the 2022 polls.
On the other hand, the President, on several occasions, has urged Sen. Manny Pacquiao to run, saying he "wants" to make him president. Last December, Pacquiao was named as PDP-Laban's new president, replacing Pimentel.
Despite going around the country for various relief operations, Pacquiao has repeatedly evaded questions about his political plans for 2022.