‘…Pacquiao and company have a long road ahead if they want to persist in this battle against Cusi and friends. Will they go all the way, or will they slink back, lick their wounds, and live to fight another day?’sss
WHAT has been brewing for months has finally come to pass. PDP-Laban, the storied political party of President Duterte, was unable to repair the steaming fissures within its ranks. As observers pointed out a few months ago, the clash between Energy Secretary and PDP Vice Chair Alfonso Cusi and Senator and PDP President Manny Pacquiao would lead to a break in the party if not properly addressed. The fork in the road came when both factions tried to oust the other — Cusi was expelled from the party by Pacquiao, but Cusi fired back and removed Pacquiao and his cohorts, with the blessing of no less than President Duterte.
With both sides calling the action of the other contrary to the Party’s constitution, it seems that there is no other way forward but taking it to the courts to settle the issue — something usually avoided by any ruling party going into an election year. Unless a party in disarray is as of the moment, as there are other parties that will step up to carry the ball into 2022. Perhaps the reason why intra-party disputes are not a big concern is because of the existence of Hugpong ng Pagbabago. While its advocates continue to point out that Hugpong is a regional party, all political observers know to go where power gravitates. And judging by the deluge of national politicians flocking to Davao City in the proverbial kiss the ring moment with Mayor Sarah Duterte, these little details of regional or national party already seem inconsequential.
One wonders at the strategy employed by Pacquiao and his allies in going against his former party mates; he launched what was supposed to be a bomb and then promptly turned around and left the country, ruining the momentum of his exposes. This also left the field wide open for Duterte to take potshots at him. Pacquiao in effect left himself unguarded against these attacks, and I don’t see anyone from his side taking the cudgels in his absence. The so-called exposes also lost traction, with no one minding the store.
Even Sen. Koko Pimentel, whose father was one of the co-founders of PDP, was powerless to stop Duterte from handing over the party to Cusi.
And one wonders further: did Pimentel et al think they had a shot from taking the party away from their chairman, the incumbent President of the Philippines? Because if they did, then wow. As the younger folks would exclaim, “what were they smoking?” If this faction thought they would actually succeed in wresting the party away from the incumbent President, then they might have seriously overestimated Duterte as a lame duck. While conventional wisdom would have lent some validity to that assumption, situational awareness would have dictated that they tread more carefully, considering that the obvious tack of the current administration to perpetuate their hold on power beyond Duterte’s term.
All in all, it seems that Pacquiao and company have a long road ahead if they want to persist in this battle against Cusi and friends. Will they go all the way, or will they slink back, lick their wounds, and live to fight another day?
