President Rodrigo Duterte’s remarks that the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino (PDP)- Laban had been asleep for 100 years and only woke up when he ran for president in 2016 is but an exaggeration, Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said on Sunday.
“We know what it meant, that’s just a hyperbole or an exaggeration,” Pimentel said in an interview in Filipino over Radio DZBB.
Pimentel said that while he acknowledges that the party’s membership bloomed under President Duterte’s presidency, PDP-Laban has already had its share of political “surges.”
The senator said the PDP-Laban was active during the term of the late President Corazon “Cory” Aquino and even during the time of Vice President Jejomar Binay, who ran under PDP-Laban’s banner.
“So we’ve also experienced surges. The party has even experienced a ‘third wave’,” Pimentel said.
On Saturday, Duterte said the PDP-Laban is indebted to him as he downplayed the popularity of the late Senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, Jr. who was the founder of the PDP-Laban. Duterte said it was he who brought the political party back to life when he decided to run for president in 2016.
Duterte also claimed both father and son are not known in their hometown in Cagayan de Oro City.
The senator, however, denied this saying the people of Cagayan de Oro City even passed a City Council resolution citing his father’s achievements and recognizing his contribution to the city and the whole nation after his wake in 2019.
“I’m saying this, just to correct the statement of President Duterte that my father is not even recognized in Cagayan De Oro City. Because Tatay Nene is already dead, he can no longer speak for himself,” he stressed.
It was also on Saturday, July 17, that Duterte sworn in Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi as the new president of the PDP-Laban party, ousting Sen. Manny Pacquiao, who is in the United States to prepare for his fight against Errol Spence.
Pimentel earlier insisted that the national assembly and council meeting held by Cusi’s faction on July 16 and 17 were still illegal even if the President, who is the party’s chairman, was present during the two-day event.