CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — A PDP Laban founding member is leading a Mindanao-wide campaign for the reelection of Senator Christopher “Bong” Go and eight other senatorial candidates who are advocates of the party’s core principles, particularly humanism, consultative democracy, and participatory governance, as championed by the late senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr.

Manny Lumanao, PDP Laban regional president, told DAILY TRIBUNE the nine PDP senatorial candidates have remained steadfast in upholding the party’s principles, which were abandoned by former members who defected to the administration party after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte won in the 2022 elections.

“PDP Laban remains a major political force in the country today,” Lumanao said.

He clarified that those who defected were not original party members but had joined it during President Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency. He said that former senator Manny Pacquiao, the former president of a breakaway faction, had ousted him, but he remained loyal to the party that he founded with the late senator Pimentel in 1983.

Lumanao, who was also the PDP Laban regional president in the Caraga region, was ousted by acting president Pacquiao on the day the latter assumed the party leadership.

Pacquiao installed Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny T. Pimentel as vice president in place of Lumanao, but Lumanao did not relinquish his position as regional president.

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

“It is therefore absurd and ridiculous for Pacquiao to unilaterally revoke an appointment duly recognized by PRRD as national chairman,” Lumanao said.

He explained that Pacquiao, as acting president, had yet to submit himself to the national assembly for confirmation to legitimize his position at the party’s helm, as required by the party’s constitution.

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