A high-ranking official from the PDP-Laban faction led by Senator Manny Pacquiao and Koko Pimentel said that President Rodrigo Duterte no longer embodies the values of the party.
PDP-Laban executive director Ron Munsayac said in a virtual briefing that they will no longer support the vice presidential bid of Duterte who accepted his nomination last week.
“He doesn’t represent the values and principles of PDP-Laban. We will be having a national assembly and that could be taken up. But so far, that’s the sentiment of almost 99.9% of the members,” Munsayac said.
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“Nabudol kami,” he added. Munsayac added that party members have been feeling the same for a long time now.
“We had decided to keep our mouths shut because, in the party, we address it internally before going to the media,” he said.
“More party members were enlightened when the former party chairman insulted party president Pacquiao publicly. We had been asking him (Duterte) to fix the party, but instead, what he did was to insult him,” he added.
The official explained why they are saying these things in public now.
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“When you are not on good terms with your sibling, you don’t announce it publicly. As much as possible you try to fix things internally. But we crossed the Rubicon when Senator Pacquiao was insulted publicly,” Munsayac said.
The PDP-Laban faction of Pacquiao and PImentel endorsed the candidacy of the boxing champion on Sunday.
No vice-presidential candidate has been chosen so far.
The Cusi faction on the other hand only has Duterte as vice presidential bet with Senator Bong Go declining the endorsement as standard bearer. (TDT)