‘Meanwhile, he need not say that some members have no party loyalty and are just using the PDP-Laban as a “stepping stone” to attain higher political ambitions.’
AS the filing of certificates of candidacy nears, it looks like the feud inside the ruling PDP-Laban political party is deepening and the cracks widening, with acting party president Sen. Manny Pacquiao and original founder member Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III leading party loyalists against the power holders President Rodrigo Duterte, party chairman, and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, his appointed “attack dog.”
The spat between Duterte and Pacquiao got so serious that there have been charges and counter-charges of corruption and lying from both sides. For all you know, both are correct, Filipinos all over the net, all over the world, are saying.
The President challenged Pacquiao to name high officials in government and their departments who are involved in graft, and the senator countered that the Department of Health under Health Secretary Francisco Duque III is the best example.
There have been exchanges of incendiary vitriol between the Pacquiao camp and that of presidential spokesman Harry Roque, which served no other purpose than exacerbate the situation. Roque said Pacquiao might have been absent when Duque rendered an accounting of COVID-19 purchases in the Senate. Meanwhile, the fighting senator vowed to produce documents coming from real-life complainants, even disgruntled employees of the DOH and other departments, who have been asking his office for help in exposing and fighting official corruption. Pacquiao promised the President that he will turn over to him these pieces of evidence as soon as he is ready.
In the face of heckling from the DDS (Duterte’s Davao trolls) in the internet and strong criticisms from political analysts, Pacquiao like the champion boxer that he is, refused to back down. He went on the offensive, drew strength from the fact that he is still president of PDP-Laban and has many followers inside the party. He gave his party mates a stern warning on Thursday: Follow the rules or leave.
He warned: “From now on, I’m telling them, not in my time as president of the party. I want to teach them a lesson. I am the president of the party and you must follow the rules and bylaws of the party.”
This in-fighting in the PDP-Laban is not doing the party any good, for Cusi might just succeed in what Pacquiao had been charging him as doing: dividing the party. Meanwhile, he need not say that some members have no party loyalty and are just using the PDP-Laban as a “stepping stone” to attain higher political ambitions. It is plain to see that like him, these members are like that.
Many are interested, including us, in knowing how this party feud will play out, and if PDP-Laban will emerge stronger or weaker when things come to a head.
