The Commission on Elections will hear both factions of the ruling PDP-Laban party before declaring which side is legitimate by November, its chairman Sheriff Abas said Wednesday.
Abas said they are expecting both camps of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and Senator Manny Pacquiao to file the certificates of candidacies of their respective nominees.
“For as long we don’t have a decision, we don’t know which faction is legitimate. Surely, the two factions will field their candidacy, that’s for sure,” he said in a television interview.
Abas said the Comelec will still hear the petitions of both camps, after which the commission’s board will decide.
“We will conduct clarificatory hearing and after that, we will submit to the en banc. We will vote on that, maybe sometime November,” Abas said.
Earlier this month, the Cusi-led PDP-Laban faction filed a petition before the Comelec to declare Pacquiao and Senator Aquilino Pimentel III as illegal representatives of the party.
The poll body has already ordered Pacquiao and Pimentel to respond to the petition filed by the Cusi wing.
Pacquiao’s group has maintained they are the legitimate PDP-Laban group.
Pimentel, meanwhile, emphasized he is a member of PDP-Laban since the 1980s. The senator’s father, the late former Senate President Nene Pimentel, is the founder of the party.
Pacquiao was recently named the presidential candidate of his PDP-Laban faction.
Cusi’s group nominated Senator Bong Go as its presidential candidate and President Rodrigo Duterte as the running mate for next year’s elections.
Go has not accepted his nomination until now, but Duterte already signed his Certificate of Nomination Acceptance.