The Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) faction headed by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi has excluded Senator Manny Pacquiao from its list of senatorial candidates for the May 2022 national elections.
Cusi said this is because Pacquiao has already “burned the bridges” with the group.
“You know, we have been inviting him. We wanted to meet with him. But unfortunately, he closed the door to us. He didn’t only close the door,” Cusi said in an online press briefing on Tuesday, September 7.
“We have been saying to him, and this is what I have been saying to him from the very beginning na: please don’t burn your bridges,” he explained.
“Masama ang nangyari kasi (but things didn’t turn out right), he did not only close the door, but he also burned the bridges,” the Cabinet official said.
Cusi said the PDP-Laban is prepared to announce its official senatorial slate, which he said, would all be members of the party, at the party’s National Convention on September 8.
His group would also be formally endorsing the nomination of Senator Christopher “Bong” Go as president and President Rodrigo Duterte as the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP-Laban.
Earlier, Cusi’s faction confirmed they have tried to reach out to Pacquiao to try to convince him to run for senator under the PDP-Laban, to resolve the ongoing feud between him and Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, who is also a stalwart of the party.
Pacquiao, however, said he is setting his sights on a possible presidential run, backed by the faction of Pimentel, who is eyeing him to be the standard-bearer of the party.
Pimentel had earlier announced that his group will also field their own PDP-Laban senatorial candidates in the upcoming elections.