PDP-Laban keeps partnership with Putin’s party despite Russian invasion
MANILA, Philippines — PDP-Laban, chaired by former President Rodrigo Duterte, has kept its partnership with United Russia, the party of President Vladimir Putin, even in the face of its widely-condemned invasion of Ukraine.
PDP-Laban secretary-general Melvin Matibag admitted to Philstar.com on Thursday that its agreement with United Russia inked on Oct. 17, 2017 still stands.
“It’s not yet cancelled. It’s still existing,” Matibag said partly in Filipino in a chance interview on the sidelines of a PDP-Laban press event in Parañaque City.
The cooperation agreement between PDP-Laban and United Russia provides that it “shall remain in effect five years” after it is signed and “shall be renewed by tacit agreement from one five-year period to the next.”
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III, who signed the agreement on behalf of PDP-Laban and heads a breakaway faction of the party that claims legitimacy over the Duterte-chaired group, called the agreement “dormant” but was unsure if it has indeed expired.
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“Neither side has proposed any joint activity whatsoever from the time it was signed up to today,” Pimentel told Philstar.com in a text message. “There is still this signed document. But no action. No contact. No development.”
Matibag said they have lost contact with United Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine, adding that they cannot terminate the agreement with Putin’s party unilaterally.
“We have to talk to them,” Matibag said, adding that their engagements with the ruling parties of China and Vietnam continue.
‘I don’t kill children, elderly’
Under the 2017 agreement, PDP-Laban and United Russia agreed to “conduct bilateral consultations and to exchange information regarding the current state of affairs” of the Philippines and Russia.
They also agreed to contribute to developing relations between the Philippines and Russian legislatures.
When the deal was struck, Pimentel called it “historic” as it “brings Russia and the Philippines closer together.”
It was during the final months of Duterte's presidency when Putin ordered an attack on Ukraine, which was condemned by the Philippine government at UN assemblies.
In one of his weekly televised meetings with Cabinet officials, Duterte rebuked Putin — whom he once called his “idol” and “friend” — over the killings of civilians in Ukraine.
“Many say that Putin and I are both killers. I’ve long told you Filipinos that I really kill. But I kill criminals, I don’t kill children and the elderly,” said the former Philippine president who oversaw a bloody “drug war” that critics said targeted poor communities.
READ: ICC warrant vs Putin a 'warning' against Duterte drug war defenders — senator
Despite Duterte's criticism of his Russian counterpart, Matibag admitted that they have not discussed their party’s official position on the invasion of Ukraine.
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