The PDP-Laban party that has President Rodrigo Duterte as its nominal chieftain is going the way of typical ruling party of administration in power. Barely one year before the May 9, 2022 presidential elections, party stalwarts are scrambling to get ahead of everyone to become the top candidates anointed by the administration-backed political party.
A PDP-Laban Resolution signed by the majority of the party members and officials led by Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Alfonso Cusi sought to convince President Duterte to run for the vice presidential (VP) elections next year. Cusi, who sits as the vice chairman PDP-Laban, got the Resolution unanimously passed and approved.
Thus, Cusi got clobbered from the camp supporting the leadership of Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao as the “acting” president of the PDP-Laban. This, after Cusi presided their party’s national council meeting and approved that Resolution on Monday in Cebu. Pacquiao himself denounced the Cebu meeting in a privilege speech at the Senate last Wednesday. Pacquiao accused Cusi of violating their own party’s by-laws and constitution for holding the national council without the consent of the entire party leadership.
Like Pacquiao, along with fellow Senators Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Bong Go and Ronald dela Rosa of PDP-Laban also failed to join the Cebu meeting held from 1 to 5 p.m. They all opted not to attend it physically or virtually online because it coincided with their marathon sessions at the Senate to pass upon urgent administration bills.
In our online Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Cusi justified the Cebu PDP-Laban gathering as part of the “pocket meetings” allowed by the party rules. Also, Cusi stood squarely behind the Resolution in order to secure the “continuity” of the country’s gains under the Duterte administration.
Cusi was joined at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay zoom webinar by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda who admitted as among the first ones to ask Mayor Sara Duterte to run for the presidency even before others joined the bandwagon. A PDP-Laban card-bearing member, Salceda is also among those being mentioned as potential VP candidates. The Albay Congressman, who chairs the House ways and means committee, attended virtually the Cebu meeting.
Reacting to the protests of the Pacquiao camp, Cusi casually mentioned loose reports of Pacquiao’s supposed plans to run for the 2022 presidential race. Asked to comment on the possible Pacquiao-Duterte tandem in next year’s elections, Cusi retorted: “That possibility of Manny Pacquiao and the President (Duterte) run in tandem, everything is fluid.” Hastily, adding, “As I said, Congressman Salceda might even become Vice President.”
Cusi did not hide his awe and admiration to the thorough and well-studied briefing that Salceda gave on the economic and fiscal bills certified urgent by President Duterte. Recognized as the resident economist in the House of Representatives, Salceda shepherded the passage into laws of a number of these socio-economic and tax reform measures.
Cusi announced anew the PDP-Laban is set to meet on July 16 and 17 to also receive the official nominations for presidential standard-bearer, VP, senatorial down to local bets for the May 9, 2022 elections. For now, Cusi is still waiting for any invitation to meet with Pacquiao who sought face-to-face meeting with President Duterte to thresh out their “family” intramurals in the PDP-Laban. As of press time though, Cusi admitted the signed PDP-Laban Resolution has yet to reach the desk of President Duterte, including those done “electronically” via online.
Well, there is nothing wrong to wish for something as exemplified by this PDP-Laban Resolution. But for all intents and purposes, this Resolution is not even binding to President Duterte even if he is the highest elected official of the administration party.
But if President Duterte indeed gets a “message from God” for him to grant the supposed wishes of his PDP-Laban partymates, he may indeed run for the VP post. This scenario gets credence amid persistent reports that Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte is being pressed to run for the presidency to succeed her father at Malacañang on June 30, 2022. No less than Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo has been publicly announcing and endorsing the Duterte-Duterte tandem in the May, 2022 elections.
If that happens, this paves the way for the Duterte family to replicate their Davao City stronghold through these years. This is the father-and-daughter team exchanging posts as Mayor and Vice Mayor of Davao City at the end of the three-term limit.
As political pundits see it, the Resolution will be the “knockout” punch against the boxing champion. However, that remains to be seen. For now, Sen. Pacquiao has started already his preparations for his next scheduled boxing title bout this year.
Pacquiao took over from Senate colleague Pimentel who resigned as PDP-Laban president a few months in 2018. This was after he stepped down as Senate president as part of the term-sharing “gentlemen’s agreement” with Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III during the 17th Congress. By majority vote, Sotto got elected again as Senate president in the 18th Congress. Incidentally, Sotto who belongs to the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) declared last week his intentions to run for VP in next year’s elections.
But that is getting ahead of a scenario. For all we know, this is another “shaking of the tree” that President Duterte loves to do in order to see what falls from the tree. After all, many of the Duterte critics believe the 75-year-old President is already lameduck in less than a year remaining of his term.
The PDP-Laban power play coincided with the rotating blackouts in Luzon due to thin power supply while electricity demand is at peak during the summer months. Pacquiao blamed Cusi for being busy in party politics while the public is “powerless” from the blackouts. But the DOE Secretary pointed these to “fortuitous” events beyond his control.
Thankfully, while holding our weekly online Kapihan sa Manila Bay, there was no power tripping.