Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Sen. Manny Pacquiao, and President Rodrigo Duterte
MANILA, Philippines — Some quarters in the ruling PDP-Laban are just waiting for it to “implode,” Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III warned on Tuesday as the rift widened between the party chair, President Rodrigo Duterte, and its acting president, Sen. Manny Pacquiao.
In a Viber message, Pimentel, the former party president, said the faction led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi should name the “real/authentic/genuine party members” instead of catering to those “whose ‘heart/loyalty’ belongs to some other existing political party.”
He said the latter members were “just waiting for and wanting PDP-Laban to implode and after the 2022 elections will just wave ‘bye bye’ to the party.”
The implosion appears to be imminent, with Duterte telling Pacquiao that he would campaign against the boxing champ in the 2022 elections if he should fail to prove his claim of government corruption.
Duterte aired the threat during his weekly public address on Monday, in which he also flirted with the idea of seeking the vice presidency after earlier saying he had been resisting it.
“I will say it’s not at all a bad idea, and if there is a space for me there, maybe. But if there is no space for me, everybody is crowding up wanting to be … vice president, then they could just have it since I am done,” he said.
The President called out Pacquiao for supposedly issuing statements about how the Duterte administration was “three times more corrupt” than the previous one.
“So I am challenging him: Point those offices that are corrupt. And let me take care of it. Within one week, I will do something,” Duterte said.
“If you fail to do that, I will campaign against you because you are not doing your duty. Do it because, if not, I will just tell the people: Do not vote for Pacquiao because he is a liar,” he added.
For the first time, Pacquiao delivered a counterpunch to Duterte.
“With all due respect, beloved President, I am not a liar. I have committed mistakes in my life which I have straightened out and corrected, but I can stand firm on two things: I am not corrupt and I am not a liar,” he said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Accepting the challenge
Using Duterte’s own words against him, Pacquiao said any statement he had made about the issue was supported by the president’s previous remarks.
“The president himself spoke of growing corruption in the government in his statement on Oct. 27, 2020. In his own words, he said: ‘I will concentrate the last remaining years of my term fighting corruption because it is not weakening, and is even strengthening,’” Pacquiao said in Filipino.
“Mr. President, I feel the same way,” he said.
He said he was accepting the President’s challenge.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to help you and give you information for the campaign against corruption,” he said.
Pacquiao cited the spending of the Department of Health (DOH) under Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
“Let us begin with the DOH. Let us scrutinize and inquire into all the rapid test kits, PPE [personal protective equipment], masks, etc. they have purchased,” he said.
“Are you, Secretary … Duque, prepared to show the entirety of your spending? Where did the money we borrowed to address the pandemic go?” he said.
“It is sad that we are quarreling on the issue of corruption because what the country needs are leaders who will work together against it,” Pacquiao said.
Most, not all
In a podcast interview in November, Pacquiao spoke about the corruption of many Filipino politicians.
“Because of the system of politics, there’s a lot of corrupt [politicians]. I’m not saying all of them, but most of them,” he said then.
Asked to comment on Duterte’s remarks on Pacquiao, Pimentel said: “They should meet.”
He declined to discuss what the PDP-Laban was doing to resolve internal differences that had split the party into two factions — one led by Pacquiao, who is rumored to be planning a presidential run, and the other led by Cusi, the party’s vice chair, who has pushed for Duterte to run for vice president.
“Allow us to settle the internal issues within the Party, internally and privately,” Pimentel told the Inquirer in his Viber message.
Not the first time
The president’s Monday-night threat was not the first time he attacked Pacquiao. Early this month, he said Pacquiao should “study first” the issues surrounding the West Philippine Sea before criticizing the government’s actions.
Pacquiao’s ally, PDP-Laban acting executive director Ronwald Munsayac, earlier said his camp had been trying to arrange a meeting with the president.
Meanwhile, Cusi is consolidating his own forces in a planned PDP-Laban council meeting and assembly in July that Pacquiao and Pimentel consider illegitimate.
In those meetings, Cusi’s faction is expected to discuss the party’s candidates in the 2022 elections.
After ‘praises and praises…’
Duterte said there were things he would like to continue, but running for vice president would also depend on the presidential candidate he would support.
He wanted his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio, to seek the presidency but she refused, according to his spokesperson Harry Roque.
After laying out his possible plans, Duterte lamented that Pacquiao was suddenly claiming government corruption after years of showering him with praise.
“You have not said a thing all these years. You just had praises and praises for me, and now you will say corrupt,” he said, addressing Pacquiao.
Pacquiao has to identify the corrupt people in government to show that he is not just politicking, the president said.
“If you fail to do that,” he will be relentless and hound Pacquiao every day, he said.
“I will expose you as a liar,” Duterte said, adding that he had known Pacquiao from way back.
“I put you on notice that I will reveal everything and challenge you during the elections. If you don’t do it, you’ll just be another son of a bitch playing politics,” he further said.
The president said he had acted on issues of corruption brought to him, citing the dismissal of personnel of the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Customs.
He said the Department of Public Works and Highways had been notorious for corruption, but the corrupt officials were weeded out even before Pacquiao’s allegations.
“Every administration will have its share of the problem of corruption. Do not ever think that if you will win as president, there would be no corruption in the Philippines,” Duterte said.
Unexpected break
Roque said the break between Pacquiao and Duterte was unexpected.
He said that after Mayor Duterte refused to seek the presidency, Duterte’s next move was to choose a candidate from among Pacquiao, Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, and former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“The president had not precluded endorsing Senator Pacquiao before, but it seems Senator Pacquiao could not wait,” Roque said.
Asked how the rift would affect the party and if its members would have to choose between Duterte and Pacquiao, Roque said: “I think it’s sufficient for me to divulge … that he recognizes the fact that PDP-Laban is the party of the Pimentel family.”
PDP-Laban was founded by Pimentel’s father, the late anti-Marcos activist and former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr.
On Duterte’s possible run for the vice presidency, the “unfinished business” has to do with illegal drugs and corruption, Roque said.
Duterte considers it a problem if the next president would be from the rival camp and he would be unable to continue his unfinished business, Roque said.
It would be “ideal” for the Duterte and Pacquiao to meet and discuss their differences, according to Deputy Speaker Eric Martinez, one of the original PDP-Laban members.
“It would not be good for the party if this situation [is not] dealt with [with] collective decisiveness,” Martinez said in a text message to the Inquirer on Tuesday.
Asked if party officials should intervene, he said: “Intervene maybe no, but I am closely observing the situation.”