Pimentel says 'no regrets' in supporting Duterte in 2016
Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III said he does not regret supporting President Duterte during the 2016 elections, even after the latter criticized his leadership in the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).
"Wala, wala (None, none). No regrets at all, no regrets panalo ang PDP-Laban noon (That the PDP-Laban won then). We are proud to have produced a president,” Pimentel said in an interview with ABS-CBN's Teleradyo on Monday, July 19.
“Dapat ang PDP-Laban will support all of the good programs of the Duterte administration, kasi alam niyo isang barko lang tayo (The PDP-Laban should be supporting all the good programs of the Duterte administration, because we all are in the same boat)," he added.
Pimentel was the PDP-Laban's president when the political party carried Duterte's presidential bid in the 2016 national and local elections.
In December, 2020, he relinquished his post to then party vice president Senator Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao, who is reportedly planning to run for president next year.
"Let us be happy na maging successful 'yong kapitan natin ng barko ng term na 2016 to 2022. Let us make sure na successful siya kasi tayong lahat ang pasahero d'yan,” Pimentel said of Duterte.
"No regret sa decision pero (but)...ang party is now planning for the 2022 to 2028 term, dapat klaro ‘yon (that should be clear). Huwag tayong balik nang balik sa 2015, 2016 -- hindi na. 2022 to 2028 na ‘yong pinaghahandaan, so ibang usapan na ‘yon (Let's not keep go back to 2015, or 2016 -- don't. We are talking of 2022 to 2028, so that is a different issue)," he added.
Pimentel said he will not anymore argue with Duterte on who's to blame for the ruckus in the PDP-Laban, but he insisted on the legitimacy of the "automatic succession" of the party presidency.
Duterte said last July 17 that Pimentel made a mistake of giving the post to the boxing senator.
He said Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi may have only fed Duterte with this point of view, recalling that the Cabinet member has supposedly been criticizing his leadership ever since.
“Akala ko ‘yon ang gusto ni Sec. Cusi noong parati niyang pinupuna ‘yong leadership ko. Akala ko gusto niyang mag-step aside ako, so I stepped aside, so automatic succession (I thought that's what Secretary Cusi wanted when he was criticizing my leadership. I though he wanted me to step aside, so I stepped aside, so that was an automatic succession),” Pimentel said.
He believed Cusi only disagreed with Pacquiao's assumption as president and wanted the post for himself, since "after all their maneuvering, ang lumabas na in-elect nilang new president si Sec. Cusi (they elected Sec. Cusi as their new president)."
Pimentel said he was saddened with what has been happening to his party, not only because his father, late former senator Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Sr. co-founded it, but also that he has worked in the party for over three decades.
"35 years na akong nanilbihan diyan sa partido, so napakasakit na ginanito kami ng mga sumali five years ago (I have been serving the party for 35 years, so it really pains me that we being treated like this by those who joined the party five years ago)," he said.
Cusi was elected as the new president of PDP-Laban, replacing Pacquiao during the national assembly he organized last Saturday in Clark, Pampanga.
Pimentel, meanwhile, was cast off as the party's incumbent executive vice chairman, with Cusi's group saying the post does not exist in the PDP-Laban's constitution.
Pacquiao and Pimentel, on the other hand, maintained that Saturday's event and elections were unauthorized.