"What a way to go down."
It seems that two of the President’s staunchest allies are headed for a collision course. This was after the PDP-Laban, the political party which served as President Rodrigo Duterte’s vehicle for his presidential run, fielded candidates in Taguig to oppose Duterte’s running mate, former Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and his brother Lino’s respective bids.
According to reports, Cayetano, who is running under the banner of the Nacionalista Party, was disappointed with the leadership of PDP-Laban upon learning that the ruling party has endorsed Allan Cerafica as its official candidate for district of Taguig-Pateros in next year’s midterm elections, replacing his brother, Arnel, who is the lone district’s incumbent congressman.
Arnel will be slugging it out with Lino as PDP-Laban’s official candidate for the Taguig mayoralty post.
According to reports, Alan felt betrayed by the acts of PDP-Laban, with whose president, Senator Koko Pimentel he had maintained close relationship. The two, together with Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, embarked on a demolition job against former Vice President Jejomar Binay, frustrating the latter in his 2016 presidential bid.
Cayetano was of course rewarded by being chosen as Duterte’s running mate, and eventually, being appointed as Foreign Affairs secretary after he lost in the polls.
While Alan can still emerge victor in his tiff with Serafica, the question now is, without the support of PDP-Laban, can he still corner the Speakership post in the 18th Congress? Cayetano’s NP is only one of the minority parties in the Lower House.
His quest for the House’s top post is further hampered by the fact that most of the President’s allies in Congress have reportedly been reporting back to their old political party—Lakas.
Without any strong party support to lean on, Alan’s only hope to get the Speakership then is for a presidential intercession, which political pundits say, won’t be coming.
It had happened before when former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez failed to get Duterte’s support to thwart off the ouster move against him. And that is considering that Alvarez was one of the President’s closest friends.
Alan should have known better than tinker with the idea of colliding with PDP-Laban. He should have instead run for Taguig’s congressional district instead of his wife, Lani, thereby avoiding a confrontation with Koko’s party.
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Speaking of Koko, it seems lawyer Ferdie Topacio has a strong argument in his petition against the candidacy of the PDP-Laban top gun.
According to Topacio, Koko cannot use the case of Clavel Martinez and Benhur Salimbangon as that was a totally different case.
In the News and Nuances Forum at Nanka Restaurant in Quezon City, Topacio explained that in Salimbangon’s case, the HRET nullified his victory over Martinez, declaring the latter as the true winner, thereby serving the congressional term of the Fourth District of Cebu in the 14th Congress.
Salimbangon, according to Topacio, was allowed to run for three consecutive terms from 2010 up to the present, not because his term was interrupted, but because he was never considered a member of Congress prior to 2010.
In Pimentel’s case, he was declared winner in the 2007 senatorial elections after Senator Migz Zubiri, the 12th-ranked senator then, quit amidst Koko’s protest. Thus the senator cannot claim he can still run in the 2019 polls as his term was never interrupted.
What a way to go down. Losing the Senate presidency, and now, probably his chance to return to the Senate.
Ironically, while he is in collision course with his former partner, they might both be bound to suffer the same fate.
