Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr admitted that PDP-Laban members did not find common ground despite efforts by the President to reconcile the two warring factions.
“The President said that the members should talk among themselves and then the President will meet them again in September,” Roque said in an interview with dzRH radio. “Then if they really cannot settle all their issues, they can go their separate ways,” he added.
Duterte, the chairman of PDP-Laban, met separately with the group of Pimentel and that of lawyer Rogelio Garcia, the President’s classmate, at the Diamond Hotel in Manila on Thursday night. In a statement, Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go said Duterte asked his party mates to thresh out their differences and think of the good of the country.
The meeting came two weeks after the faction of PDP-Laban led by Garcia held an assembly and elected a new set of officials to replace Pimentel as party president and Davao del Norte Rep Pantaleon Alvarez as secretary general. The group also elected Go as interim national auditor of the party.
But Pimentel dismissed the actions of the group, whose members, he said, had been expelled from PDP-Laban. Pimentel on Friday said he would not enter into any settlement with lawyer Garcia, who claims to be the new president of PDP-Laban. The senator said the July 27 assembly organised by Garcia was a “sham election.” “(There’s) no need for any settlement. No one recognises them except themselves. And maybe some media practitioners,” Pimentel said in a text message.
Pimentel also said he would not allow anyone to enjoy the gains of PDP-Laban that he and his father, former Senate president Aquilino Pimentel Jr, had laboured to achieve through the years. The older Pimentel formed the PDP-Laban to fight the Marcos regime.
“I do not intend to cling to my position and title,” the younger Pimentel said.
“But why is it that he wants to eat what we have planted, harvested, cooked, and prepared? Why him?,” the senator stressed.
“We have no problem if the one who will eat our harvest also laboured with us in expanding the party.” “They should not resort to shortcuts or try to hit the jackpot. They must exert effort, too,” he said. Asked whether President Duterte scolded Garcia for organising on July 27 the supposed “unauthorised” election of officers, Pimentel said: “I have no personal knowledge because he met us separately.”
The President, Pimentel said, considers PDP-Laban as “his party and that he is duty-bound to campaign for its candidates” in the 2019 midterm elections. “He requires only two qualifications of PDP Laban’s candidates: competence and honesty,” Pimentel said. ‘Hugpong won’t poach PDP-Laban members’
Also on Friday, the new regional party formed by the President’s daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, clarified that it had no plans of recruiting members from PDP-Laban or other national parties.
Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), which means Alliance for Change, issued the statement following reports that some PDP-Laban members were planning to jump ship amid party infighting. “Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) is a regional political party whose members are from Region XI. While the party has supporters outside of Davao Region, we advise them to form their own local parties or join other national parties — the NUP (National Unity Party), NP (Nacionalista Party), NPC (Nationalist People’s Coalition), or PDP-Laban,” the regional party said.
“HNP does not intend to recruit members of PDP-Laban or other national political parties. HNP respects the history, experience, and the wisdom of the PDP-Laban Party,” it added. The regional party, however, said it “finds it truly unfortunate that PDP-Laban is embroiled in an internal problem and hopes that competing party members resolve their differences.”
Roque, the Palace spokesman, said he had joined HNP because this was the party of President Duterte. The President ran under the PDP-Laban in 2016.
“I think it’s only right that I also join his party. This is without prejudice to alliances that Hugpong may enter into, including with PDP-Laban,” Roque said.
Roque, along with Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, joined the party, which Alvarez, who does not see eye to eye with the Davao mayor, had earlier derided as part of the opposition.
Roque and Go are said to be running for senator in next year’s elections.