PDP-Laban unification talks ongoing

Senators Robin Padilla and Christopher "Bong" Go on Thursday revealed that they have been actively discussing the possible unification of the once-ruling party Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan or PDP-Laban with Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III's faction.

In separate interviews, Padilla, who resigned from his post as the PDP-Laban's executive vice president, said he has been courting Pimentel to reunite the two factions.

"I court him every single day. Every day, I tell him: 'Boss, let us just unite in the PDP," he said.

To recall, the Commission on Elections en banc in January upheld the decision of its second division declaring the PDP-Laban-wing led by former Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi as the "true and official."

Cusi filed a petition to the poll body in 2021 to declare the Pimentel-led PDP-Laban faction as illegitimate.

Days before the elections in May last year, the second division of the Comelec granted his petition over the Pimentel-Manny Pacquiao-led faction, in its 11-page resolution.

The poll body also ruled as valid the Cusi wing's national assembly held in Pampanga in July last year, where Pimentel and Pacquiao were expelled from the party as party president and chairman.

Duterte's blessing

Padilla said his ongoing talks with Pimentel have the blessing of the PDP-Laban chairman, former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

"Even before, we were given the freedom to speak with Senator Koko," he said.

Go, meanwhile, said that while he remains open to the unification of the two PDP-Laban factions, the discussion needs consultation with their respective members.

"It is still in the consultation stage. Senator Koko Pimentel has to consult with his members; the same goes for us with Senator Robin; we are consulting with our leaders," he said.

The Senate minority leader's father, Senate President, and party cofounder Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr., established the PDP-Laban with the late senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. in 1982 as an opposition coalition against the dictatorship of former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

In a strange turn of events, the PDP-Laban led by Cusi, supported the presidential bid of Marcos' son and namesake Bongbong, a move that Pimentel described as a "total anti-thesis of everything PDP-Laban stands for."