Cagayan de Oro City – A founding member of PDP-Laban is leading a Mindanao-wide campaign for the re-election of Senator Bong Go and eight other senatorial candidates who uphold the party’s core principles, particularly humanism, consultative democracy, and participatory democracy, as advocated by the late Senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr.

Manny Lumanao, PDP-Laban’s regional president, told the DAILY TRIBUNE that the nine senatorial candidates have remained committed to the party’s principles—principles that, he claimed, were abandoned by former members who defected to the administration party after President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte won the 2022 elections.

"PDP-Laban remains a major political force in the country today," he said.

Lumanao added that those who defected from the party were not original members but only joined during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte.

He also criticized former Senator Manny Pacquiao, the former president of a breakaway PDP-Laban faction, for allegedly ousting him from his position. Despite this, Lumanao said he remained loyal to the party he co-founded with the late Senator Pimentel in 1983.

Lumanao, who served as PDP-Laban's regional president in the Caraga Region, was unceremoniously removed by Pacquiao on the day the latter assumed party leadership.

Pacquiao appointed Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny T. Pimentel in Lumanao’s place, but Lumanao refused to relinquish his position.

“Lumanao, co-founder of PDP-Laban in 1983 together with the late Sen. Nene Pimentel, was appointed regional president in 2015. His appointment was signed by then-party president Sen. Koko Pimentel and confirmed no less by President Rodrigo Duterte," a party source said.

“It is therefore absurd and ridiculous for Senator Pacquaio to unilaterally revoke an appointment duly recognized by PRRD as national chairman,” he stressed.

Lumanao pointed out that Pacquiao has yet to submit himself to the party’s national assembly for confirmation as acting president, a requirement under the PDP-Laban constitution to legitimize his leadership.

"I cannot blame Sen. Pacquaio for the oversight because he probably was not properly informed. It is obvious Sen. Manny was misled and wrongfully directed on the first day of assuming the presidency to violate the PDP-Laban basic principles, thus exposing his lack of knowledge of the party’s ideology and organizational structure,” Lumanao said.

In addition to Lumanao, Benito Ranque was removed as PDP-Laban’s secretary-general after the party was reorganized by the faction led by former Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi. This faction later formed the Marcos-Sara Duterte Alliance (MASADA) to campaign for the Marcos-Duterte tandem in the 2022 presidential elections.

The late Nene Pimentel founded PDP-Laban in 1981 as an opposition leader in Cagayan de Oro. He later became Senate President and presided over the impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada before retiring from politics and passing the party’s leadership to his son, Sen. Koko Pimentel.

PDP-Laban played a key role in the political landscape, helping catapult the late President Corazon Aquino to power in 1986 and later supporting President Duterte’s successful 2016 presidential bid.

President Duterte was among the original PDP-Laban members and was officially sworn into the party when he ran for mayor of Davao City in 2001.

Lumanao and Ranque were instrumental in laying the groundwork for Duterte’s presidency. When the party fielded then-Secretary General Martin Diño as its presidential candidate in 2016, Duterte eventually stepped in to replace him.

By that time, the elder Pimentel had already passed the party’s leadership to his son, Sen. Koko Pimentel, who later became PDP-Laban’s chairman emeritus.

When PDP-Laban was rocked by internal conflicts during Duterte’s presidency, the elder Pimentel distanced himself from the disputes, saying he was no longer involved in party affairs.

"Whatever the party does in accordance with the rules of the party regarding any party matters, that will prevail," Pimentel told the DAILY TRIBUNE before his passing.

He also noted that PDP-Laban has weathered similar crises in the past.

The party claims to have over 50,000 card-carrying members, including the so-called “supermajority” in the House of Representatives under former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. At its peak, PDP-Laban boasted governors, mayors, and congressmen from across the country.