"We will appeal to the Supreme Court."
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III issued this statement in reaction to a decision of the second division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that former Energy Secretary Alfonso. Cusi and his faction are the ‘’true’’ and original members of the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino (PDP)-Laban.
"The Comelec should refrain from using the phrase ‘vox populi, vox Dei’ in their press statements because that is just the statement of the Comelec, not the voice of the people," Pimentel said.
"Our Comelec people might slowly get some kind of messianic complex if they start believing that what they say is the voice of God," he added.
Pimentel has been unseated alongside Senator Emmanuel ‘’Manny’’ Pacquiao, who was replaced as party president by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi during the Cusi faction’s national assembly meeting. He was then the PDP-Laban executive vice chairman.
The Cusi faction was backed by then President Duterte.
Pacquiao later ran for the presidency under a different political group but lost.
Pimentel is the son of former Senate President Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr, who founded PDP-Laban that fought then President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.
The Cusi faction evolved during the later part of the Duterte administration.