PDP-Laban ranks still intact in House – Pimentel

The party in power, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) remains "intact", but any member who wants to jump the boat is free to leave, according to President Aquilino Pimentel III Thursday, no one had meant his intention to leave the party, but they would not be forced to stay, said Pimentel when asked about reports that members of PDP-Laban affiliated with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo planned to desert.

Arroyo replaced the representative of Davao del Norte Pantaleon Alvarez as President on Monday in a dedusting on the leadership that was played in the presence of foreign diplomats and other dignitaries who were in the House of Representatives. Representatives to listen to the speech of President Duterte (Sona) at a joint session of Congress

Duterte not involved

Arroyo's takeover delayed the Sona by more than an hour , and Senate Speaker Vicente Sotto III said that President Duterte

It was said, however, that the president was actually behind the ouster of Alvarez, which Malacañang denied on Thursday.

"The President did not interfere, and it was purely a decision of the members of the Presidency spokesman, Harry Roque, told reporters in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay

Roque asked members of Congress to publicly declare that Mr. Duterte was involved in the leadership contest and the president called them to vote for a particular candidate because the president did not do that. -he says.

Alvarez, a longtime ally of the president, is the general secretary of the PDP-Laban, while Arroyo is a fairly new member.

No Law Against Turncoatism

The original Arroyo Party, Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi), is moribund and the Lakas-NUCD vehicle that she rode in as president was emptied by turnco There is no law against the turncoat in the Philippines, so the smaller parties like the Liberal Party (LP) and PDP-Laban, who had only 39, a handful of members up to Benigno Aquino III and Rodrigo Duterte captured Malacañang in 2010 and 2016, respectively.

Turncoats left the LP sorry in 2016 and now that Arroyo is back in fourth position in the line of succession – unlikely, according to reports, to have no plans in a long-standing Pimentel proposal, however, said that nothing had happened to the party despite convulsions in the House.

"We are still intact," he said.

But Pimentel acknowledged the sadness and disappointment of how Alvarez and Arroyo fought for the leadership of the House.

The two could have contested their fight within the party, he said. same posi and did not talk and resolved within the party. If you are a real party with a political maturity, you should have discussed it within the party. "

Learning experience

" Whether it is a learning experience not only for our politics. But at least, he said, the president is still being held by a member of the PDP-Laban, although there are shared emotions because another party member has been removed from the listing.

Alvarez will not be replaced as secretary general of PDP-Laban, said Pimentel. Until then, there was no mention of sanctions, although he added that he had not spoken to Alvarez yet.

The reaction of Drilon

Franklin Drilon, leader of the Senate minority, said that a "sign of the absence of any decent political party system in our country."

Drilon said that there was a need to reform the political party system to put an end to turncoatism and to make sure that people belonged to a party because of the ideological commitment

"We should pass a law [that would] that governs the political party in our system. Look at this, you know in a more mature democracy with a more mature political party system, something like that will not happen, "said Drilon at a news forum in the Senate.

There said that what happened in the House of Representatives was all about local politics, no political problem – WITH A REPORT BY JULIE M. AURELIO