Pacquiao not interested in meeting requirements to get backing of Duterte-led PDP-Laban

Sen/ Manny Pacquiao. (INQUIRER.net file photo)

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Manny Pacquiao, who is running for president in the May elections, on Wednesday said he is not keen on meeting the requirements to clinch the endorsement of the PDP-Laban faction being led by President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Ako kasi basta nasa tama tayo. Doon tayo sa tama,” he said in an interview in Cubao, Quezon City, when asked if he is conscious about meeting the demands of the party wing to get support.

(For me, as long as we are in the right. Let’s be in the right.)

“Kung umpisahan mong pagtakpan ang isang kamalian, kung umpisahan mong pagtakpan ‘yung mga kasalanan ay anong pagkakaiba mo dun sa mga corrupt na ano. Anong pagkakaiba mo dun sa mga trapo na pulitiko,” he added.

(If you start covering up wrongdoing, f you start covering up the sins, how are you different from the corrupt? How are you different from traditional politicians?)

Duterte’s PDP-Laban faction previously said it will endorse a presidential candidate who is committed to adopting the “11-point Agenda for Continuity” that is aligned with the current administration’s “legacy programs.”

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, president of the Duterte-led PDP-Laban wing, earlier said that it is important that the presidential candidate it supports continues Duterte’s legacy programs in the last five years.

The 11-point agenda consists of promoting peace and order, bolstering national defense and foreign relations, ending the pandemic, sustaining economic growth, job generation, educational reforms, decentralization, federalism, and the campaigns against corruption, poverty, and communist rebellion.

Pacquiao said he will continue Duterte’s war on drugs but “in the right way” – where suspects are not killed ruthlessly on the streets.

“Bibigyan natin sila ng karapatan na idepensa ang sarili nila sa korte,” he said.

(We will give them the opportunity to defend themselves in court.)

The PDP-Laban faction led by Duterte has no standard-bearer in the 2022 elections after its second choice presidential bet, Senator Christopher Bong Go, bowed out of the race.

The two PDP-Laban factions – Pacquiao’s and Duterte-Cusi’s – have been fighting over legitimate control of the political party.

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