Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Saturday denied the alleged rift brewing within the ruling party, saying the issues being thrown by members against each other could be part of a media publicity.
Pimentel, president of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), made the comment after a faction led by Rogelio Garcia supposedly ousted him as the leader of the party.
“Wala naman talaga kaming problema sa loob kaya hindi na ito dapat pinag-aaksayahan talaga ng panahon,” Pimentel told dwIZ.
(Actually, within the party, we don’t have any problem so we should not waste time on this issue.)
He said the idea of the supposed division in the party only exists elsewhere and not in the party itself.
“Wala kaming problema sa loob. Medyo sa labas lang binebenta yung idea na may problema sa loob ang PDP-Laban,” he explained.
(We don’t have a problem within. The idea that we have a problem in the PDP-Laban only sells outside of the party.)
Pimentel, however, challenged some members of the party chaired by President Rodrigo Duterte to just quit if they will remain “hard-headed.”
“Kung hindi kayo makikinig, na wala naman kayong karapatan, nagmamatigas kayo dyan, eh ‘di [for] good riddance, maghiwalayan na lang tayo. Kasi sino bang nanggugulo, tsaka sino ba sila?” he said.
(If you won’t listen, and you don’t have a right, you are being hard-headed, for good riddance, let’s just separate ways. Who’s causing this commotion and who are they anyway?)
Pimentel also raised his eyebrows on the loyalty of those he said have plans to “hijack” the PDP-Laban, and said they could have enjoyed the attention they got from the media on the leadership row.
“Di ko alam kung planado ito na bigyan lang talaga ng media publicity […] at siguro nag-enjoy din sila sa media attention na naibigay sa kanila,” he said.
(I don’t know if these were all planned to get media publicity… and for sure they have already enjoyed the media attention they have received.) /jpv
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