Senator Aquilino Pimentel III on Tuesday said his PDP-Laban and Hugpong ng Pagbabago, the party led by Davao Mayor Sara Duterte, were “united in its support for the President” despite being two separate organizations with their own members.
“Allies of the President may belong to one or both of these parties but we are all on the same side; we all stand by the President,” said Pimentel, PDP-Laban president.
“As I have stated to my party mates, Hugpong ng Pagbabago is a regional party, PDP-Laban is a national party. There is really no problem with dual membership in the national party and regional party,” he said.
Duterte is also the chairman of PDP-Laban, the current ruling party.
With elections still nine months away, government officials should focus on governance, not politics, Pimentel said.
“The President’s agenda supersedes any political agenda. Politics can wait but our people cannot. Let’s work now and worry about politics later,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Pimentel said that PDP Laban would continue to follow the lead of President Duterte, the party’s chairman, who enumerated the administration’s priorities in his third State of the Nation speech.
“We still have a lot of work to do and there are important matters that require our attention, such as the universal health care bill, the rice tariffication measure, and the shift to federalism,” Pimentel said.
“These measures have been certified as urgent, and we should treat them as such, especially since these will have a direct impact on the lives of our people.”
Meanwhile, Senator Manny Pacquiao said he has no plan of leaving PDP-Laban, even after the statement of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. that Hugpong ng Pagbabago is the Duterte’s party.
“I just joined the PDP. I don’t want to keep moving and jumping from one party to another,” Pacquiao said in Filipino.
Pacquiao said he also supports HNP, which is headed by the President’s daughter.