A faction of the PDP-Laban said it was not considering Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio for its standard bearer in the 2022 elections.
Not yet, at least, until the camp of presidential daughter reaches out to the ruling party, said the PDP-Laban faction’s president, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi ahead of tomorrow’s (Wednesday) national convention.
“The party has not discussed [it]. They have not reached to us, so we have no basis to even discuss it this time,” Cusi said.
The Cusi-led wing earlier endorsed President Duterte’s former longtime aide Sen. Christopher Go as its standard bearer, but the lawmaker has already declined the nomination.
Asked whether PDP-Laban was open to adopting Duterte-Carpio, Cusi declined to answer the question, saying so many things have to be considered.
“I don’t like to answer that because there are a lot of things to be taken into consideration, and it’s not only me that would make the decision. As the say, the possibility of raining and the possibility of not raining are always on the table,” Cusi said.
He said the party is not yet ruling out convincing Go to run for president next year.
“When he said he should be the last among our options, he did not close the door. We are not discounting Bong Go,” Cusi said.
Go had previously said he was open to becoming the standard bearer of PDP-Laban if President Rodrigo Duterte was his running mate.
Duterte, 76, is prohibited by the Constitution from seeking a second term.
Up to 400 people who are fully vaccinated and have negative RT-PCR results taken 48 hours prior are expected to be physically present at the party’s convention in San Fernando, Pampanga on Wednesday. On-site antigen testing shall also be conducted.
The Cusi-led wing on Tuesday petitioned the Commission on Elections to declare the faction led by Senators Manny Pacquiao and Aquilino Pimentel III as illegitimate.
The petition, filed by lawyer Antonio Zulueta, also asked the Comelec to rule that Pacquiao, Pimentel and their allies are “illegitimate officers and/or unauthorized representatives” of PDP-Laban.
Pacquiao serves as president of the other PDP-Laban faction while Pimentel was recently elected national chairman to replace President Duterte.
The Cusi group also asked poll body for a temporary restraining order and/or a writ of preliminary injunction order or other forms of relief to stop the Pacquiao camp from committing actions that would violate the party constitution.
Pimentel, for his part, insisted there is only one PDP-Laban party – that which was founded by his father, the late Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr.
“I have been with the PDP-Laban since the 1980s and I only know of one PDP-Laban which my father founded and which I never left, together with thousands of party diehards at the grassroots level,” the senator said.