The warning to expel Sen. Manny Pacquiao from the ruling PDP-Laban party is all a “wild bluff” meant to distract the boxing legend from his upcoming world championship bout in Las Vegas on August 21, his supporters said Friday.
“This is the first time that a group of Filipinos, because of politics, has organized an effort meant to distract our Pambansang Kamao while he fights in the boxing ring to bring additional honor to our country,” the statement coming from the Pacquiao faction of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan said.
“How unpatriotic of this group of politicians,” added the statement issued by Ron Munsayac, executive director of the Pacquiao faction.
The faction led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi warned that Pacquiao could be expelled from PDP-Laban due to an alleged effort to convert the People’s Champ Movement (PCM) into a national political party.
But the Pacquiao faction said this “desperation of claims” is the “malicious nature of the cause of the usurpers and expelled members of PDP Laban who have no rights or authority whatsoever to represent or lead the Party.”
The group noted that the expelled members are leading a group “illegally acting as the leaders of the Party without any basis or authority.”
“All their acts are therefore null and void for being in utter violation of the Party Constitution,” the Pacquiao faction added.
While not mentioning names, the faction was alluding to Cusi, the newly-elected PDP-Laban President, and party Secretary General Melvin Matibag as the members expelled for pushing the tandem of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and President Rodrigo Duterte in next year’s elections.
Pacquiao, who is reportedly seeking the presidency in 2022, stressed that Cusi violated the PDP-Laban Constitution for supporting a candidate, Mayor Duterte, who is not a member of the party.
Still, the Cusi-led wing elected their own officers and took their oath of office before President Duterte, the ruling party’s national chairman, during its national assembly last July in Clark, Pampanga.
Matibag cited reports of the alleged plan of Pacquiao for PCM and said such an action would be a “major ground for expulsion” from his membership in the ruling party.
“Senator Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Pacquiao’s latest punch has virtually created for himself a rabbit hole – one that could lead to his expulsion from PDP-Laban,” Matibag pointed out.
The Cusi camp shared a screenshot of the alleged minutes of the meeting of PCM during their organizational meeting on December 20, 2020, in General Santos City.
However, the Pacquiao camp said these documents were unofficial.
The PCM also reportedly amended its Constitution and By-Laws to serve as a “national party,” this time with Lorelei G. Pacquiao of Labangal, General Santos City as President and Danny A. Martinez as Executive Vice President.
But Munsayac insisted that snapshots of documents being circulated actually show that within days of becoming PDP-Laban President, Pacquiao gave up the presidency of the PCM, a regional political party, particularly in the provinces of General Santos and Sarangani.
“His continuous allegiance to the PDP Laban is unquestionable having been the campaign manager and presently the National President of the Party… Unlike the expelled group who have outwardly endorsed the candidacy of a person who is a member of another national party even if there are able and willing candidates within PDP Laban. They wanted to propagate the ideals of another national political party,” he said.
Munsayac further said Pacquiao is just like President Duterte, who is likewise a member of a local party, Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod (HTL), up to the present.
Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said the PDP-Laban Constitution has consistently been interpreted by “knowledgeable party leaders” over the decades to not prohibit simultaneous membership in the national party and a regional political party at the same time.
Until now, Munsayac related PCM is a local and regional political party. He said the Cusi faction “is only peddling lies to further their malicious and baseless claims.”
Founded in 2009 by Pacquiao himself, PCM is closely affiliated with the PDP-Laban and the United Nationalist Alliance.
The PCM ranked 97th out of 134 candidates in the last party-list elections in 2019.
