“Both said they are willing to listen to the President.

President Rodrigo Duterte will call for a caucus of the dominant Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP) to unify the party amid the forming of a faction which is made up of mostly expelled party members.

Mr. Duterte will try to unify its members, including the faction in the PDP in a caucus of the ruling party, Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go said in a radio interview.

Go was asked about the unauthorized PDP national assembly that supposedly ousted Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez as party president and secretary general, respectively.

Go’s name was listed as party auditor in the Friday assembly but he said he only found out about the existence of the faction in the party recently and that he informed Duterte, the party chairman, about it.

“I mentioned this to the President that the party has different factions. I did not know there were factions. I told him, you’re chairman of both factions. I’m also auditor of both factions. So he said he intends to call a caucus to try to unify the two factions,” he said.

Go added lawyer Rogelio Galicia, who was elected “new” PDP president, is a classmate of Duterte while the officers of the PDP faction are also supporters of Mr. Duterte.

Alvarez’s position was supposedly taken by Willy Talag, who ran for Makati City 1st District representative in 2016 under the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) but lost. Abbin Dalhani was named executive vice president.

Go said he talked to the camp of Vicvic Garcia, a regional PDP official, who spearheaded the breakaway group and Pimentel.

Both said they are willing to listen to the President, he added.

“I talked to Atty. Vic-Vic Garcia and Senator Pimentel, they are both open to listening to President Duterte. That’s good news because this is the party that brought President Duterte to the presidency. It’s not good to let this happen so the President said he will talk to both parties,” Go said.

The party, however, said sanctions are being readied against those who headed the assembly. PDP public information committee chairman Ronwald Munsayac said proponents of the “rogue” assembly will be dealt with under party rules.

“They are rogue members who will be dealt with in accordance with our party rules,” Munsayac said.

“We had expelled some of them and after a thorough investigation we will expel a few more,” he added.

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