Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) stalwart Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Thursday said the party members who choose to support possible 2022 presidential bets that are not endorsed by the ruling political party itself are free to “follow their idol” but they should leave the group.
Pimentel made the call following President Duterte’s announcement he would not run for vice president in the 2022 elections should House Majority Leader and Leyte Representative Martin Romualdez will run for the post.
Duterte is PDP-Laban party chairman and has been openly mulling the possibility of running for vice president in next year’s elections, particularly after a faction-led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi within the party, endorsed a resolution urging the incumbent president to run for vice president in next year’s elections.
Pimentel said he took note of the President’s statement endorsing Romualdez as possible vice presidential candidate, but agreed that his pronouncements cannot be considered an official stand of the party.
“I noticed that statement, but that’s not been relayed to the party formally. I just heard it. I think it was stated last night so there’s something wrong with that,” Pimentel said in an interview on ANC’s Headstart.
“Because you (should) start (looking) within the party. Ganun yun. Then, if there’s no one willing to run for President or its only up to Vice President, then you negotiate with other parties for a coalition or an alliance. Where the party will get a concession, you will field your vice presidential candidate, but within the party,” Pimentel argued.
“We are large enough now—because all of a sudden we became a very large party—(I believe) we have sufficient talent and skills within the party,” the senator stressed.
Pimentel, who is supporting the party’s president, Sen. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao’s presidential bid should he declare, said those who are “really more loyal to someone from outside the party” should leave PDP-Laban “rather than dividing the party and making its reputation and credibility suffer.”
“Why don’t you just follow your idol? Your idol already has his or her own vehicle, so join that political party, rather than be a traitor inside PDP-Laban. But if that is someone who is within the party, that’s legitimate,” he said.
“It’s (going to be) a legitimate debate and struggle within the party. I will respect that because I wrote in our constitution also that we respect also the rights of the minority,” added Pimentel.
Pimentel said it would also be a good opportunity for the PDP-Laban to “cleanse its ranks” of members who have “questionable membership” status.
“The basic problem in the party now, as I have pointed this out to Secretary Cusi, is that we grew too large, and too fast. There are many members there whose ‘membership’ are subject to completion of the basic membership requirements. So that’s the point,” he stressed.
“That’s why I have stressed this to Secretary Cusi a number of times that its premature to hold all of this meetings and assemblies and then claim to have made official decisions where the people making decisions did not even perfect their membership in the party,” he added.
“So that’s the basic problem. That’s why I told him to do it step by step. But they are in a hurry they did not even involve the party president in the fixing of the agenda,” the lawmaker pointed out.
Secret agenda?
However, Pimentel said he wants to know upfront if Cusi and other members of the party—especially those who just came to join the organization only during the time Duterte won the presidency in 2016—if they have any “secret agenda” as to why they refuse to recognize Pacquiao’s leadership in the party.
Pimentel reiterated that the meeting conducted by Cusi in May 31, though reportedly ordered by Duterte himself, was illegal. He said he will also not attend the scheduled July 17 general assembly also organized by Cusi.
"If the secret agenda is to gift the presidential nomination of the party to a party outsider, and worse, even gift the party to another party for it to be devoured and then merge for it to lose its identity, hindi kami papayag doon (We will not allow that). That's why we should do this scientifically and step-by-step," Pimentel reiterated.
“For all of us who have been in the party for decades already, we have invested blood, sweat and tears in this party, we are worried about this secret agenda and we will not allow such a secret agenda to prevail,” he said.
“Kaya nga when the facts are now fixed—who are the candidates—and there is a candidate from PDP-Laban for both president and vice president, but you really are loyal to some other party—ang tawag ko dyan (I call them) PDP-Laban on paper but another party by heart—follow your heart, follow your idol," the senator stated.
PImentel stressed: “Dun ka na, kasi mabuti na rin po itong we undergo a cleansing process within the party. So that we will be left with those who adhere to the basic principles and basic objectives of the party.”