Pacquiao urges Comelec to resolve PDP-Laban case before May 9 polls

Presidential candidate Senator Manny Pacquiao on Wednesday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to decide before the May 9 elections which faction of the ruling party PDP-Laban to recognize.

"Sa akin, gusto ko sana desisyunan na nila. Eh alam mo naman. Mas mabuti, lalong hahanga at tataas ang respeto ko sa Comelec kapag nangyari 'yun," Pacquiao said in a media briefing in Borongan, Samar.

(I hope that they already make a decision. That would be better, I would appreciate it and my respect for the Comelec would go even higher if they made such a move.)

Pacquiao, however, added that it is doubtful the poll body would make such a move before May 9.

"Hindi na lalabas 'yung desisyon na 'yan bago mag-eleksyon. Pagkatapos na siguro ng eleksyon 'yan madesisyunan ng Comelec dahil mahirap din," he said.

(That decision would not come up before the elections. Perhaps the Comelec will decide on that after the elections because the case is difficult.)

Two factions of the PDP-Laban are vying for recognition before the Comelec: one led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and President Rodrigo Duterte; and another by Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III and Pacquiao.

In September 2021, the Cusi faction filed a petition before the poll body to declare Pacquiao and Pimentel illegal representatives of the party.

Pacquiao insisted that they are the legitimate PDP-Laban group.

The Cusi faction has endorsed Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte for president and vice president, respectively, in the May 9 elections, while Pimentel's group supports Pacquiao's presidential bid.

Pimentel slammed the Cusi group's endorsement of Marcos Jr., saying that it proved that they were "total strangers" to the party, which was founded in 1982 to resist the strongman rule of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Bongbong's father. — BM, GMA News