MANILA, Philippines (Updated 4:50 p.m) — The endorsement of presidential aspirant Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. by a faction of the PDP-Laban shows it is not the original party, Sen. Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Pimentel, a party stalwart and son of founder Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr., is with a rival faction seeking recognition from the Commission on Elections as the legitimate PDP-Laban party. Recognition will mean, among other things, access to copies of election returns.
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"With this latest action from [Energy Secretary Alfonso] Cusi and his cohorts, they have manifested that they are total strangers to PDP LABAN. They don’t even know that PDP LABAN was established to oppose the Marcos dictatorship. Time for Comelec to dismiss the petition of these usurpers!" Pimentel said on his Twitter account.
With this latest action from Sec Cusi and his cohorts, they have manifested that they are total strangers to PDP LABAN. They don’t even know that PDP LABAN was established to oppose the Marcos dictatorship. Time for Comelec to dismiss the petition of these usurpers!
— Koko Pimentel (@Koko_Pimentel_) March 22, 2022
PDP-Laban was formed in the 1980s as an opposition coalition against the Marcos dictatorship. The party was formed by the merger of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino founded Pimentel's father and Lakas ng Bayan led by then Sen. Benigno "Ninoy Aquino Jr.
"In Germany for example, a political party formed to oppose Adolf Hitler will definitely not support an Adolf Hitler Jr.," Pimentel said. "Logic lang 'yan (That is simple logic). We have to be Consistent with the PDP LABAN history, struggles, deaths, and party constitution!"
Pimentel was Senate president early in the Duterte administration but resigned in May 2018 to focus on his reelection campaign.
Sen. Manny Pacquiao, a candidate for president and a member of the Pimentel-led faction, called on party members to ignore the Cusi clique's endorsement, calling it a "slap in the face of PDP" as he called on the energy secretary to think about whether he really cares about the party.
"Baka nalimutan ni Cusi na ang PDP ay nabuo against sa Marcos regime. Baka nakalimutan lang niya. Lahat ng miyembro ng PDP, huwag po natin sundin si Cusi," he said.
(Maybe Cusi has forgotten that PDP was formed against the Marcos regime. He may have forgotten. All members of the PDP should ignore this)
PDP-Laban split
Since 2016, the party has rebranded itself in Duterte's image as its membership grew. It redesigned its party logo to incorporate Duterte's signature clenched fist and styled itself as "Partido Demokratiko Pilipino" without Aquino's Laban.
The party began to fracture in early 2021 after Pacquiao mentioned he might run for president and that he would focus on addressing corruption in government. Duterte, who has repeatedly proclaimed a hard line against corruption, took offense at the suggestion there was corruption in his administration and began criticizing the boxer-turned-politican.
By August 2021, the Cusi faction had managed to call a national assembly despite party president Pacquiao's protests. They declared party positions vacant and elected Cusi as party president and Duterte as its chair.
Duterte said then that it was Pimentel's "mistake" of thrusting Pacquiao to the helm of the party that led to the infighting that split PDP-Laban.
"Ang nagkamali diyan si Koko, hindi si Pacquiao. Pacquiao does not know anything," Duterte said at the national assembly.
(Koko made a mistake, not Pacquiao. Pacquiao does not know anything.)
Pacquiao is running for president under an allied regional party while a series of substitutions and withdrawals left Cusi's PDP-Laban faction without a standard-bearer until it decided to back Marcos. — Jonathan de Santos