SEN. Emmanuel Pacquiao yesterday accused his party mate, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, of playing politics instead of finding solutions to the power shortage.
Pacquiao, acting president of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), took issue with Cusi, party vice chairman, after the latter called a national assembly of party members.
The assembly pushed through on Monday despite Pacquiao’s call for party mates to ignore Cusi, on the ground that national assemblies should be called only by the party’s president or chairman.
Days before the assembly, Malacañang said it was President Duterte, the party’s chairman, who told Cusi to call for the meeting.
On Sunday, a party official said Pacquiao was arranging a meeting with the President to discuss the issue of calling national meetings and a resolution that came out of the May 31 assembly, urging Duterte to run as vice president in next year’s elections, with his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio, as presidential candidate.
Pacquiao, who is known to be eyeing the presidency next year, focused his attacks on Cusi who he said was playing politics by holding the party’s national council meeting last Monday in Cebu City.
In a privilege speech yesterday, he said it was not the right time to talk politics.
He said power outages in several areas in Metro Manila occurred on the same day the PDP-Laban general assembly was being held in Cebu City.
The power outage led to the disruption of the Senate’s session, with Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon, and Senators Juan Edgardo Angara and Nancy unable to attend the rest of last Monday’s session because their areas were affected by the blackout.
Pacquiao said this is not the right time to play politics as the country is facing an energy crisis which will badly affect businesses, online schooling, and may affect the potency of
COVID-19 vaccines in storage facilities, among others.
“Itigil muna natin ang politika. Napakarami nating problem ang dapat nating harapin at hanapan ng solusyon. Pero nakakalungkot isipin na yung ibang opisyal natin na dapat mangasiwa ng situwasyon, ng problema natin na kinakaharap natin ngayon na ito ay inuna pa ang pamumulitika, Mr. President (Let us stop politicking. The country is faced with a lot problems which we need to be solved. But it saddens me to think that an official in-charge of the situation is putting politics ahead),” Pacquiao said.
“I am talking directly to Secretary Cusi, Mr. President. As a PDP member, kasamahan sa partido, na kung ano man yun mga ganyang situation, ano man mga pagkukulang natin ay nakaka-apekto sa aming mga PDP members… Nadadamay tayong lahat doon sa problema na nangyayari ngayon (I am talking directly to Sec. Cusi, Mr. President. As a PDP member, a party mate, whatever the situation is, whatever our shortcomings are, the party is affected… We are all affected by this present problem),” Pacquiao said.
Pacquiao said it up to President Duterte whether to boot Cusi out as energy secretary due to the power crisis.
He recalled that in 2016, Cusi promised there will be no energy shortage to be experienced under the Duterte administration.
“…Five years ago, Secretary Cusi declared that there is no looming power crisis. And here we are having brownouts, Mr. President. Nasa red alert pa man din tayo… Mr. President, mukhang ibang power issue ang inaatupag ng ating energy secretary (And we are in a red alert status… Mr. President, it seems that our energy secretary is preoccupied with other ‘power’ issues),” he said.
Cracks in the ruling PDP-Laban apparently started when Pacquiao criticized
Duterte’s changing positions on the country’s territorial dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea, a criticism which disappointed other PDP-Laban members.
