Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. (Henzberg Austria/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel expressed worries over a possible “secret agenda” being pursued by new members in the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP- Laban) party.
Pimentel, the PDP-Laban executive vice-chairman, raised concerns over the “premature” holding of meetings, noting that the May 31 national council meeting called by party vice-chairman Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi was “unauthorized and unlawful.”
“The question is, is there a secret agenda? What is the secret agenda? For all of us who have been with the party for decades already, we have invested our blood, sweat, and tears with this party, we are worried about the secret agenda and we will not allow such a secret agenda to prevail,” Pimentel said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.
“So a secret agenda is to gift the presidential nomination of the party to a party outsider and worse even gift the party to another party for it to be devoured, merge and lose its identity. Hindi kami papayag doon kaya we should do this scientifically and step by step,” he added.
Pimentel said long-standing members of the PDP-Laban will not allow new members to “dictate the future direction of the party.”
“Kaming mga naka-invest na po ng dugo sa partidong PDP-Laban, bakit kami papayag na yung mga sumali lamang sa time ni President Duterte, 2016, mga baguhan,” he said.
“Sinali namin subject to perfection of basic membership requirement, ni hindi nag-exert ng effort to perfect basic membership requirements and now we will allow them to dictate the future direction of the party? ‘Di po kami papayag doon,” he added.
The meeting led by Cusi was questioned by some of its leaders and members, including its party president, Senator Manny Pacquiao.
While party chairman President Rodrigo Duterte designated Cusi to call for the event, Pimentel said Pacquiao should have been made aware of the meeting’s agenda.
“They kept the [party] president unaware of the agenda, so that was my basic question. Why the need for secrecy, was there a secret agenda being pursued by Sec. Cusi and his group?” Pimentel went on.
‘We grew too large, too fast’
According to Pimentel, he has raised the “basic problem” of the party to Cusi many times before.
“The basic problem in the party now as I have pointed this out to Sec. Cusi, we grew too large, too fast. There are many members there whose ‘membership’ are subject to completion of the basic membership requirements so that’s the point,” the senator said.
“That’s why I have stressed this to Sec. Cusi a number of times that it’s really premature to hold all of these meetings and assemblies and then claim to make official decisions where the people making decisions did not even perfect their membership in the party,” he added.
“That’s the basic problem, that’s why I told him to do it step by step but they are in a hurry, they did not even involve the party president in the fixing of the agenda, so the question is, is there a secret agenda?” Pimentel added.