THE Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino – Laban (PDP-Laban) and its members elected Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi as President during the national assembly of members attended by no less than the party chairman, President Rodrigo Duterte.
Cusi thus replaces Senator Manny Pacquiao as party president.
However, Cusi, in his capacity as PDP-Laban vice chairman, said that the act could not be considered an outright ouster since it affected all national officer positions and committee chairs.
In a speech delivered moments after administering the oath of the new set of national party officers and committee chairpersons, Duterte reiterated plans of running for Vice President in the 2022 general elections that had the delegates clapping loudly.
It was not clear, however, if Duterte was trying to pull another joke as he has done several times in the past.
With Pacquiao out of the party leadership, the former pound-for-pound champion who is presently in the United States to train for his upcoming boxing match on August 21, now has a very slim chance of being named as standard bearer of the administration party, which has been egging to see presidential daughter Sara Duterte as their bet for the 2022 presidential derby.
Cusi has long declined to use the term “oust” to describe what was expected to happen at the Saturday meeting, insisting that the election of new officers is being done in accordance with party rules.
There have long been some members in the party who never recognized Pacquiao as party president.
It was PDP-Laban stalwart Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III who had given his post of party president to Pacquiao in December 2020.
But the faction led by Cusi and National Transmission Corporation president Melvin Matibag (party secretary general) felt it was unfair for Pimentel to just appoint Pacquiao without going through the process.
“The late Ka Nene Pimentel cofounded this party, and we honor his memory,” said Cusi during the party’s national council meeting on Friday, referring to Pimentel’s father.
“However, we should all be reminded that no one is above our constitution no matter how long you have been with this party,” he continued.
While Malacañang has said Duterte acknowledges and respects that PDP-Laban is the “party of the Pimentels,” the President, who is the party chairman, presided over the Cusi-led group’s national assembly on Saturday.
He has also recognized past meetings and resolutions adopted by the group yet rejected by Pimentel and Pacquiao’s group, including the call to run for vice president in 2022.