Wenceslao: PDP-Laban row

AS if the formation by presidential daughter Sara Duterte of the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) isn’t enough of a threat to the existence of the administration party PDP-Laban, in comes a faction of the said party that met yesterday and “unseated” Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III as president and former House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez as secretary general. The faction had declared its meeting as a national assembly.

Pimentel has disowned the group and the assembly but has refused to divulge who was behind it. Reports say the people who joined the gathering at the Amoranto Stadium in Quezon city were mostly from the National Capital Region and other parts of Luzon. A rappler.com article said that at least 20 buses ferried the participants from Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and other parts of Metro Manila.

Those personalities that the faction elected as the party’s new officers are virtual unknowns. For example, “elected” to replace Pimentel was a certain Rogelio Garcia while Willy Talag, said to be president of the PDP-Laban in Makati City and chair of the membership committee of the party’s National Capital Region chapter supposedly replaced Alvarez.

Pimentel did not say what his next move would be but he noted that the “ousted” set of officers were still the legitimate ones, recognized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and possessing papers to back up their legitimacy. He even told reporters not to put too much weight on what the faction did yesterday.

Interestingly, among the officers “elected” yesterday was Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go as auditor, reportedly the same position he held under Pimentel. One of the officers of the PDP-Laban faction said they received a go signal from Go to have him nominated for the post.

While Pimentel has refused to link Go to the faction’s move, other people may. Incidentally, Pimentel has made it abundantly clear that the gathering was well-funded, with the participants being bused to the venue. The faction’s leaders however said that they funded the gathering themselves.

Pimentel may not have said it, but this latest development should be a blow to the integrity of the party. Note that this comes weeks after he stepped down as Senate president and replaced by Sen. Vicente Sotto III. With the ouster of Alvarez as House Speaker, the original PDP-Laban leaders have been marginalized.

A weak PDP-Laban would actually benefit Sara Duterte’s HNP. Consider that this came following House Deputy Speaker Rolando Andaya’s claim that some PDP-Laban members in the House of Representatives are jumping to Lakas-CMD, the party of former president and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Lakas-CMD will then possibly merge with Hugpong ng Pagbabago.

So is this recent move part of an effort to weaken the PDP-Laban and eventually supplant it with Sara Duterte’s party? Is this meant to alienate the Pimentels (Koko’s father, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., is the PDP-Laban founder) and give the Dutertes (President Duterte and his daughter) full control over a new administration party going into the 2019 elections?

As they say, abangan ang susunod na kabanata.

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