Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon. Screen grab / Senate PRIB file photo
MANILA, Philippines — While “anything can happen” when it comes to the Liberal Party opening its doors for Senator Manny Pacquiao amid a growing rift within the PDP-Laban, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon stressed the opposition party’s “certain principles and platforms.”
“I think anything can happen except that we have certain principles and platforms in the party that is why a number of us, many in the party, I, myself, have been called ‘Dilawan’ or whatever. We accept that, we stand for certain principles,” Drilon, vice chairman of the Liberal Party (LP), said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum Wednesday.
He was asked about the possibility of the LP accepting Pacquiao should the senator be removed from the PDP-Laban.
But Drilon said the LP is currently focused on preparing for the 2022 elections in the event that Vice President Leni Robredo, party chairman, decides to run for the presidential post next year.
“We are open to alliance. We are open to discussion. That’s all I can say at this point,” the minority leader added.
“We are continuing to organize,” he also said.
A falling-out within the PDP-Laban seems to be imminent amid a widening rift between two of its ranking officials, party chairman President Rodrigo Duterte and Pacquiao, the party’s acting president.
Pacquiao has long been an ally of Duterte since the start of his administration in 2016, but the President, on Monday night, warned that he would campaign against the senator should the latter fail to name corrupt agencies in the current administration.
On Tuesday, Pacquiao accepted Duterte’s challenge.
Pacquiao’s name has been floated as among the possible presidential candidates for 2022 with at least two of his Senate colleagues saying that the boxing champ-turned-politician has expressed interest in running for the top post in the coming elections.
The senator, however, has yet to make any announcement on which post he plans to seek next year.