Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Sunday, July 18 maintained that Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi is still an expelled member of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) even though it was President Duterte himself who swore him as the party’s president.
Pimentel, who belongs to the faction led by Sen. Manny Pacquiao, said that in the “eyes” of the PDP-Laban headquarters, Cusi has been formally expelled from the party “because of acts inimical to the best interest of the party, disloyalty to the party.”
The senator said the same goes with the other officers who were elected as new party officials in the July 17 meeting. He said the two-day assembly organized by Cusi, were all illegal.
“All of these are unauthorized. It should not affect the existing PDP-Laban structure,” Pimentel said in Filipino in an interview over Radio DZBB.
“One thing is clear, there is nothing in the party Constitution that says that the presence of the party chairman legitimizes everything. There is none. What is critical is that the agenda should be fixed and coordinated by the party president,” he said referring to Pacquiao.
As far as he is concerned, Pimentel said the PDP-Laban headquarters will push through with its planned national assembly in September.
“If we need to reorganize, we will also reorganize if we need to. And then (in September) we will also nominate a party candidate,” Pimentel said.
Asked how he believes the PDP-Laban infighting would be resolved, Pimentel said it would be up to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to solve the clashes within the party.
“There will be a point that there is going to be a formal clash of position. Because we are in the posiiton that we are the legitiamte party, and they also believe that they are the party. If it comes to that, I’m sure the Comelec knows what it would do, because this is not the first that they encountered this,” he said.
Pimentel also said that those who attended the July 16, 17 party would not be punished, as only Cusi, who masterminded the meeting, deserves the penalty.
“Yes, we will just ignore what happened yesterday (Saturday), because we are focused on the process. I still believe President Duterte is not involved in all of these. It was all Secretary Cusi who stealthily moved and organized this assembly,” he said.
“In the eyes of Secretary Cusi, I created all of the problems, but who made the moves? Who went around party members? Didn’t he cause the ruckus? He’s the one who caused all of this conflict,” he reiterated.
Asked if he has any response to Duterte’s jab against him, Pimentel said he would just allow him to “concentrate on dealing with the country’s problems.”
“It’s painful to be criticized by the person whom you helped in the past, but that is life. That is because of the wrong information that reached him,” he said.
“Let us just allow the President to address the growing problems of the country and leave the party issues with us. We will sort it out,” he stressed.