A party official of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi slammed Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III for criticizing their move to convince President Duterte to run for a Senate seat in the upcoming May 2022 elections.
Melvin Matibag, secretary general of the ruling political party Cusi faction, said it was Pimentel and his group that is engaged in “personality politics” for fielding Sen. Manny Pacquiao as their presidential candidate in next year’s polls.
“Senator Koko Pimentel must be referring to himself when he made that statement. Personality politics is advising Senator Manny Pacquiao to run for president just because he is popular even though the latter is a non-performer in the Senate and leads all senators in most absences,” Matibag said in a statement.
Pimentel, in a statement issued earlier, called the move a “show of desperation” as it gave off the impression they do not have strong senatorial candidates within their group.
“They are all simply riding on and are totally dependent on the popularity and strength of personality of the incumbent president,” said Pimentel.
But Matibag shot down the lawmaker’s pronouncement saying their bid to convince Duterte to run for senator was borne out of the public’s clamor against senators who are abusing their oversight powers.
“The idea of President Rodrigo Duterte running for senator is an offshoot to what some senators are doing now abusing the oversight powers of the Senate in aid of re-election instead of crafting laws to uplift the lives of the ordinary Filipinos,” Matibag said.