THE Commission on Elections (COMELEC), sitting en banc declared the ‘Cusi Wing’ faction of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Laban ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) has flipped flopped after it affirmed that the ‘Cusi Wing’ faction headed by former Department of Energy (DOE) secretary, Alfonso Cusi as the “true and official” representative of the party.
In a 9-page resolution released on Friday, January 27, 2023, the en banc junked the motion for reconsideration filed by Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and former Senator Manny Pacquiao, who contested the leadership of the party during the May 2022 national elections before the poll body. But their petition was junked by the COMELEC’s Second Division.
Pimentel is chairman of the PDP-Laban as per his faction, with Pacquiao as president. Pacquiao run for president but lost in the May 2022 elections.
The Cusi Wing, on the other hand, supported the candidacy of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Both Pimentel and Pacquiao were ousted by Cusi in a ‘general assembly’ in August 2021, several months before the start of the election campaign period.
In a statement, the COMELEC said that the en banc “did not find novel issues to be tackled and found no cogent reason to disturb the decision of the Comelec Special Second Division.”
Voting 2-1, the Comelec’s special Second Division granted the petition filed by the Cusi wing in August 2021 to declare Pimentel’s group as “illegitimate.”
The decision by the COMELEC to now recognize the faction of Cusi is a complete turnaround from its decision in 2019—and affirmed by the Supreme Court—that Pimentel’s group is the “true” representative of the party, in the case involving Pimentel and the group of Atty. Rogelio Garcia.
With the development, Pimentel said they have no choice but to again run to the Supreme Court. He also scored the COMELEC for the “messianic” language of its statements to the media and asked the poll body to refrain from using the phrase ‘vox populi, vox Dei’ in their press releases, stressing the statement is not the voice of the people.