PDP-Laban’s Cusi wing expels Pacquiao

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Manny Pacquiao has been kicked out of a PDP-Laban faction for filing his certificate of candidacy for the presidency under a local party, a move that goes against the ruling party’s constitution, an official said yesterday.

PDP-Laban secretary-general Melvin Matibag said Pacquiao’s filing his candidacy under PROMDI, a local party based in Cebu, means that he is automatically expelled based on Article 7 Section 6 of the PDP-Laban charter.

“The PDP Laban National Executive Committee met Oct. 1 and a resolution was approved automatically expelling Sen. Pacquiao from PDP-Laban in accordance with the party constitution,” Matibag said in a statement.

“Senator Pacquiao claims that he is the legitimate president of PDP-Laban and even called his own National Assembly where he
accepted their so-called proclamation as presidential candidate and yet he is running for president under PROMDI. Let’s call a spade a spade. If that is not disloyalty, betrayal, and abandonment of PDP Laban, I don’t know what is,” he added.

Pacquiao filed for his presidential run on Friday under the party amid an ongoing legal contest between two factions within PDP-Laban––Pacquiao and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III’s group; and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi’s.

The two factions each filed separate sworn information update statements before the Commission on Elections. If the Comelec decides in favor of one, the other would not be able to field candidates under the party’s name.

Matibag said Pacquiao’s move to file under PROMDI proves that the other wing’s appeal with Comelec has less bearing compared to that of Cusi’s wing, adding that the senator’s move might actually belie his claim that “he has the support of grassroots members.”

“This is where people can see Sen. Pacquiao and Sen. Pimentel do not abide by the Constitution of PDP Laban and they are sidelining the voice of the many, true members of PDP Laban,” he said. “Why would he leave PDP Laban if it’s true that he has thousands of supporters within the party?”

Meanwhile, Matibag said the party fears that Pacquiao’s move to build alliances with PROMDI and the People’s Champ Movement would stir confusion among PDP-Laban supporters.

“I don’t think if they have ever thought of the repercussions of their actions. Jumping ship to different parties has always been Sen. Pacquiao’s move, whenever he sees he can’t have his way with the party,” he added.

Pacquiao and Pimentel––son of the party’s founder––earlier locked horns with Cusi over the party leadership due to the latter’s insistence on fielding a non-PDP-Laban member––Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.

She has filed for reelection in 2022 but PDP-Laban has yet to address the fact that Sen. Bong Go, the party’s choice for standard-bearer––has filed his COC for the vice-presidency.

‘So easy to explain’

Pimentel, meanwhile, shrugged off Pacquiao’s expulsion by PDP-Laban’s Cusi wing saying the latter and Matibag “do not know the facts.”

He said the situation was “so easy to explain,” citing the alliance – dubbed “MP3 Alliance” – among PDP-Laban, PROMDI and the People’s Champ Movement. He said the three groups have proclaimed Pacquiao as their presidential candidate.

He said the PDP-Laban national executive committee – in its Resolution No. 12 – allowed Pacquiao to use the PROMDI certificate of nomination and acceptance “in order to consolidate his support base and alliance partners” as the presidential candidate “is already known and identified with PDP-Laban.”

Pacquiao was also officially nominated and proclaimed as presidential candidate also by PROMDI in its national assembly, he said.

“Hence everything is normal and in order per our party constitution. The ‘issue’ being propagated by Cusi and Matibag is a figment of their imagination which they want to use for their own political propaganda,” Pimentel said.

He said Cusi and Matibag actually had “a lot of explaining to do to their own audience” regarding their faction’s nomination in September of Sen. Bong Go and President Duterte as candidates for president and vice president, respectively. Pimentel said Go publicly and formally refused his nomination.

“Now, they have filed a COC with Sen. Go for vice president without any formal and public nomination from their group. What is happening to their group? Don’t they coordinate at all? Don’t they observe any formalities at all? Are they a group of people who just change their minds in an instant and then that is already the group’s decision?”

Sen. Richard Gordon, for his part, has expressed doubts that President Duterte would keep his word that he would be retiring from politics.

Gordon, who has been the latest subject of attacks from the President, said Duterte made a similar vow sometime in the latter part of 2015.

“He said he will retire. Did he? Did he run (eventually)? He says things just like that,” Gordon told dzBB in Filipino. — Paolo Romero