Cusi-led PDP wing issues nomination certificates

A faction of the PDP-Laban led by Energy chief Alfonso Cusi has started issuing Certificates of Nomination and Acceptance to the ruling party's official candidates in the 2022 national elections.

“As we have promised our party mates during our national convention on September 8 in Pampanga, we will be processing their CONA as soon as possible to enable them to file their certificate of candidacy within the deadline specified by the Commission on Elections,” said PDP-Laban Secretary General Melvin Matibag.

The Comelec will start accepting COCs from October 1 to 8, 2021.

During its convention, the PDP-Laban faction adopted Sen. Christopher Go as its official standard bearer, with President Rodrigo Duterte as his running mate. Duterte has accepted the nomination but Go has declined.

Matibag said the CONA is important because only candidates with valid CONAs are considered as official candidates of their respective political party or coalition, otherwise, they would be considered as independent candidates.

Last week, the Cusi-led faction filed a petition before the Comelec asking the poll body to declare the group led by Senators Manny Pacquiao and Aquilino Pimentel III as illegitimate.

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 the 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.