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Pacquiao nomination as PDP-Laban presidential bet a drama, says Cusi faction


Senator Manny Pacquiao’s election as PDP-Laban party chairman is comedy, if not drama, the faction of the party headed by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said Monday.

“We are not surprised; we expect them to do that. The ouster of President (Rodrigo) Duterte (as party chairman replaced by Senator Koko Pimentel), that was a comedy. The proclamation (of Pacquiao), that’s drama. Hopefully, it would not end up for them as a tragedy,” lawyer Melvin Matibag of the Cusi group said.

The party recently named Pacquiao as its standard bearer for the 2022 polls.

The Cusi group, meanwhile, earlier nominated Senator Bong Go to run for president and President Rodrigo Duterte as its candidate for vice president in next year's elections.

Matibag argued that Pacquiao’s nomination violated party rules and thus, illegitimate.

Matibag said that such nomination of Pacquiao as standard bearer will be for naught, saying that he is confident that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will eventually side with their group as the legitimate PDP-Laban since only the party chairman has the authority to call for the convention of a national council.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, who is with Pacquiao, said the legitimacy of their group is beyond question.

“The Cusi-Matibag group, in a public ceremony, nominated someone for President of the Republic of the Philippines and that person formally declined the nomination. Who is ending up to be a comedy?” Pimentel said in a separate statement.

“Matibag is a good bluffer. Why make a bluff, news?,” Pimentel added.—LDF, GMA News

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