Lawyer: Comelec to decide PDP-Laban woes if party fails to resolve it internally

Veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal. Photo by Otso Diretso

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will decide on the legitimate officers of the PDP-Laban if the party fails to resolve the issue ahead of the 2022 national polls internally, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said Wednesday.

According to Macalintal, if PDP-Laban will fail to resolve the leadership issues by August 15—which is the last day for registered political parties (RPPs) to submit their respective Sworn Information and Update Statement (SIUS) that contains the list of their members and officers—it is the Comelec that shall decide on the matter.

“If the leadership issue is not internally resolved by the PDP-Laban before August 15, the party and its officers and members will be in for a big and serious political crisis for there will be conflicting claims as to who has the authority to sign the documents to be submitted to the Comelec and who has the authority to call for a national convention to nominate their official candidates,” Macalintal said in a statement.

“This is where the Comelec, as held by the Supreme Court, will exercise its exclusive jurisdiction over the issue of leadership in a political party incidental to its power to register political parties ‘where one party appears to be divided into wings under separate leaders each claiming to be president of the entire party,” the election lawyer added.

The infighting in the ruling PDP-Laban party seems to be far from over, with two factions forming—the group of party president Senator Manny Pacquiao and the group of party vice-chairperson Alfonso Cusi.

It has come to a point where Pacquiao expelled Cusi and two others for allegedly violating provisions of the party’s constitution “by showing allegiance to a political party apart from PDP-Laban.”

READ: PDP-Laban expels Cusi, 2 other execs for allegedly violating party rules

“If the controversy is not resolved by August 15, we might find both the Pacquaio Wing and the Cusi Wing filing their respective versions of SIUS and the list of the party’s authorized signatories,” Macalintal said.

But this was not the first time this infighting within PDP-Laban happened, said Macalintal.

Macalintal said a similar issue arose in the 2019 elections when the Comelec received two sets of  SIUS and two sets of List of Authorized Signatories for the party filed by Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, claiming as the group authorized to represent the party and a certain Rogelio Garcia, who was also claiming to be the legitimate party officer elected in the party’s National Assembly.

“The issue was resolved when the Comelec called the two opposing wings to a hearing where they were required to present their evidence to prove their respective claims,” Macalintal said.

“And so it should be in the Pacquiao vs. Cusi fight. If they both file their respective documents for the party, the issue will be resolved by the Comelec after due notice and hearing,” he added.