Vice Prsesident Jejomar Binay, Chairman of PDP Laban, took over Senator Koko Pimentel's duties as president of PDP Laban while blocking moves to oust Pimentel.
ABS-CBN NEWS
By Ira Pedrasa, ABS-CBNnews.com
Posted at 08/30/2012 7:17 PM | Updated as of 08/31/2012 8:14 AM
Binay stopped moves to oust Pimentel, says Peping
MANILA, Philippines - Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan
(PDP-Laban) confirmed on Thursday that Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel
III is on leave as president of the political party following his
decision to join the administration’s senatorial slate in the 2013
polls.
In a statement, PDP-Laban Secretary General Peping Cojuangco said
Vice President Jejomar Binay will take-over Pimentel’s duties. He noted,
however, that Pimentel will remain as the “nominal president.”
"We are thankful that (Binay) has accepted to this arrangement since
Koko cannot attend to the party's commitment to UNA in the agreement
with PMP which he himself signed," Cojuangco said.
He disclosed that certain officers had requested to oust Pimentel
during a party meeting at the Coconut Palace last week, but Binay
stopped the move.
"In fairness to the Vice President, he did not accept this suggestion
and said the decision must come first from Koko," Cojuangco said.
The same officers, whom he refused to name, then requested that Binay should take over if Pimentel refuses to go on leave.
Pimentel says he's not on leave
Pimentel, however, still insists he is an active official of PDP-Laban.
In a statement posted on the Senate website also on Thursday,
Pimentel denied an earlier statement made by United Nationalist Alliance
(UNA) spokesman JV Bautista.
“I have not filed any leave of absence, whether verbal or written,
and have no plan whatsoever to do so. No one has asked me to go on
leave, except Atty. JV Bautista, who is a newcomer to the party. Even
our Party Chairman Vice President Binay has not directly asked me to go
on leave. I also do not feel any clamor from my party mates that I go on
leave,” he said.
He even urged his party-mates to unite and find a solution “without dividing the party.”
Joey Salgado, spokesperson for the Vice President’s camp, confirmed that Binay has indeed taken over the duties of Pimentel.
He said an intermediary of Pimentel attended that luncheon meeting at
the Coconut Palace, he told ABS-CBNnews.com. The intermediary went on
to say that Pimentel has decided to go on leave.
In June, Pimentel decided to run for re-election without the help of
the UNA after the latter included his rival former Sen. Juan Miguel
Zubiri in its line-up.
UNA is a coalition between PDP-Laban and former President Joseph
Estrada’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino. Zubiri is one of the candidates of
PMP in the UNA coalition.
Cojuangco said that even without Pimentel’s active participation,
PDP-Laban and UNA will be the party to beat in the 2013 elections.
"Under the leadership of our chairman Vice President Binay, we are
stronger than ever and remain united and strong," Cojuangco said.
"While the Vice President remains busy with his governmental duties,
he laid out clear instructions for party members to continue all efforts
to make our party stronger across the nation," Cojuangco added.
INQUIRER
By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net
6:59 pm | Thursday, August 30th, 2012
Vice President and HUDCC chairman Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Vice President Jejomar Binay will assume the
duties of Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III as president of PDP-Laban
even if the latter refuses to take a leave of absence, a party official
said.
The move came despite Pimentel’s insistence that he had not filed a leave of absence from the party.
PDP-Laban has coalesced with the newly formed group United
Alliance (UNA) but Pimentel, who resented the inclusion of former
Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri in the UNA senatorial ticket, decided to
join the Liberal Party’s senatorial ticket as guest candidate in 2013.
In a statement on Thursday, PDP-Laban’s secretary-general, Peping
Cojuangco, said that Binay had accepted the party’s request that he take
over Pimentel’ duties.
“We will leave the position as it is but (Vice President) Binay will assume the duties of Koko,” Cojuangco said.
“We are thankful that (Binay) has accepted this arrangement since
Koko cannot attend to the party’s commitment to UNA in the agreement
with PMP, which he himself signed.”
Cojuangco also disclosed that there were moves to oust Pimentel from the party but that the Vice President did not agree to it.
“In fairness to the Vice President, he did not accept this suggestion and said the decision must come first from Koko,” he said.
The officers then requested Binay to take over Pimentel’s duties as party president should the latter refuse to go.
“Under the leadership of our chairman Vice President Binay, we are
stronger than ever and remain united and strong,” Cojuangco said.
“While the Vice President remains busy with his governmental duties,
he laid out clear instructions for party members to continue all efforts
to make our party stronger across the nation,” he added.
Pimentel denial
In a separate statement, however, Pimentel insisted that he had not taken a leave from the party.
“I wish to deny the statement made by the spokesperson of the United
Nationalist Alliance (UNA), Atty. JV Bautista, that I have filed a leave
of absence as president of PDP Laban. Such statement has no factual and
legal basis,” he said.
“I have not filed any leave of absence, whether verbal or written,
and have no plan whatsoever to do so. No one has asked me to go on
leave, except Atty. JV Bautista, who is a newcomer to the party.”
Even Binay, Pimentel said, had not directly asked him to go on leave.
“I also do not feel any clamor from my party
mates that I go on leave,” he said. “I want to believe that Atty. JV
Bautista was just making a personal suggestion when he issued that
statement.”
Furthermore, the senator said, the constitution
and by-laws of the party “do not give any person or group of persons
the power to force an officer of the Party to go on leave.”
Pimentel then urged his party to unite and find a solution to their problems “without dividing the party.”
“Instead of wasting our time issuing baseless
statements and responding to false information, we can discuss this and
find common ground,” he said.
“I have been a member of the PDP Laban since
1982 and have invested my time, energy, resources, talent, sweat, tears
and blood in the Party; hence, I cannot just turn my back on my
responsibilities as party president…,” the senator added.
TRIBUNE
Written by
Tribune
Thursday, 30 August 2012 00:00
United
Nationalist Alliance spokesman JV Bautista, in a televion show,
announced that Sen. Koko Pimentel is now on leave as president of the
Partido Laban Democratiko (PDP) as Bautista also announced the official
line-up of the UNA senatorial bets, with two new additional candidates,
naming former Sen. Richard Gordon and former Ambassador to the US
Ernesto Maceda.
He also said that Sen. Loren Legarda will be in the
UNA slate, but that the alliance will come up with a bigger announcement
in time.
With Pimentel having joined the Aquino administration
Liberal Party coalition slate as a guest candidate, Pimentel is now out
of the PDP-Laban coalition and that Vice President Jejomar Binay,
chairman of the PDP-Laban, is now taking charge of the party.
Pimentel,
however, quickly announced that he had not taken a leave of absence
from the PDP-Laban and remains as the party presiudent.
But Bautista
said that party leaders had asked Pimentel to take a leave of absence
since a conflict of interest has arisen from the senator’s decision to
join the LP coalition.
“It was the party that had asked Senator
Pimentel to take a leave as president of the party… For the moment he is
not the president of PDP-Laban,” Bautista said.
Pimentel was
reported to have sent a text, saying: “I have not gone on leave from
PDP-Laban as there is no reason for me to do so. There is no clamor for
it as I enjoy the support of the party members especially the
non-politician low-key members.”
Bautista was quoted as saying,
countering the Pimentel claim: “You cannot tolerate a situation where
one of the leaders of UNA and then a president of PDP-Laban for that
matter would run in another political party that is the the foe of the
UNA senatorial slate. It is potentially disruptive of the functioning of
the party. It disturbs a lot of our local members,” he said.
Bautista
stressed that given the nuances of Philippine politics, and with
Pimentel running for an opposite party, taking a leave would be the best
move.
It will be recalled that Pimentel decided to join the LP
coalition candidate because he claimed that he could not stomach the
thought of being on the same stage and slate with former Sen. Juan
Miguel Zubiri whom he claimed cheated him.
But even as he moved over
to the LP coalition, Pimentel apparently fails to see the anomlous
situation he is now in, due to his decision to cut off from the UNA
coaltion.
As far as UNA is concerned, he cannot still be president of
PDP-Laban and attend to all the political activities surrounding the
party, while being a candidate of the administration party.
Pimentel
found his being in the same slate with Zubiri “anomalous” but does not
seem to realize that he cannot have the presidency of PDP-Laban
currently with his being a candidate in the administration slate.
Pimentel
claims that his PDP followers have not called on him to go on leave,
but Bautista said that it is the leaders of the PDP-Laban that made the
decision for him to take a leave of absence.
It is evident that
Pimentel would want PDP-Laban to campaign and vote for him, but at the
same time, there would be problems on the grassroorts level of the
PDP-Laban as its chairman is also a leader in UNA, with whom the
PDP-Laban has forged a coalition.
With the official entry of two more UNA bets, this places the number of bets at 9, including Senator Legarda.
The
others are Sen. Gringo Honasan, Rep. Jack Enrile, Rep. JV Ejercito,
Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, Zubiri and businessman Joey de Venecia, Gordon
and Maceda.
Bautista, in the same TV program said that “Loren Legarda
has already signified, very clearly, her intention (to join UNA)
because she told us that she has already obtained permission from
Danding Cojuangco of the (Nationalist People’s Coalition) that she’s
going to run in the UNA slate,” he said.
RAPPLER
MANILA, Philippines – Who is really in charge?
The question arises with contradicting statements coming from leaders
of Vice President Jejomar Binay’s political party, the Partido
Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).
This week, party leaders and members issued opposing statements on
the status of Sen Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III as PDP-Laban president.
Pimentel has announced that he is running with the rival administration slate for 2013 as guest candidate but wants to stay as head of PDP-Laban.
The PDP-Laban belongs to the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), which
is fielding a separate senatorial slate against the administration
coalition in the 2013 elections.
Asked to clarify the issue, Binay spokesperson Joey Salgado said that the Vice President is now in charge of PDP-Laban.
Binay is chairman and one of the founders of the party, along with Pimentel’s father, former Senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr.
“VP is aware of a previous commitment made by Senator Koko to go on
leave. My understanding is that VP will take over his duties,” Salgado
said in a text message to Rappler.
In an earlier statement to ABS-CBN News,
PDP-Laban Secretary General Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr also said that
Binay is taking over PDP-Laban but Pimentel will stay on as “nominal
president.”
“We are thankful that [VP Binay] has accepted this arrangement since
Koko cannot attend to the party’s commitment to UNA in the agreement
with PMP which he himself signed,” Cojuangco said.
Cojuangco was referring to UNA, the coalition between PDP-Laban and
former President Joseph Estrada’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) for
the 2013 polls. UNA calls itself the “constructive opposition” to the
ruling Liberal Party.
Reacting to the announcement, Pimentel said he found it a solomonic
decision for Binay to take over because the party already shifted into
campaign mode. He reiterated that he is in charge simply of party
matters, not campaign or coalition issues.
The conflict is rooted in Pimentel’s decision to bolt UNA in July over the inclusion of resigned Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri in its senatorial slate. PMP and later on UNA decided to accept Zubiri even if Pimentel accuses him of cheating in the 2007 polls.
The statements coming from Binay and Cojuangco as well as an earlier statement from UNA Spokesperson JV Bautista directly contradict the pronouncement of Pimentel that he has not and does not plan to take a leave of absence.
Bautista announced on Tuesday, August 28, that Pimentel already went on leave.
“I do not know where that came from because in the first place,
nobody talked to me. I did not file for any leave. I did not mention any
intention of going on leave,” Pimentel told Rappler on Wednesday,
August 29.
Pimentel overpowered?
In the same interview, Pimentel had questioned Bautista’s standing to
make a major announcement for the party. The senator said he has been a
party member since 1982 and invested time, energy, resources and talent
for the party.
“Was that his (Bautista) personal idea? Did that come from him or did
somebody tell him to say those things? If somebody told him, it means
there is a plan because it’s more than one person, there must be an
agenda,” said Pimentel.
The statements of the Binay camp and Cojuangco, however, show that
there is already an agreement in the leadership to exclude Pimentel from
party affairs. Rumors of a coup against Pimentel circulated already
last week.
It seems the senator is out of the loop. Pimentel said Bautista’s
announcement that he supposedly had gone on leave caught him by
surprise. He only found out from party members who asked him about it
via text message.
In a separate interview with Rappler
on Wednesday, Bautista said that it was PDP-Laban member and Manila
City Councilor Bernie Ang who told Binay that Pimentel committed to
going on leave.
Bautista said Ang relayed this during a meeting of party leaders at
Binay’s office at the Coconut Palace on August 23. Pimentel was not
present.
The UNA spokesperson said Ang supposedly got the commitment from Pimentel in a party meeting on August 20.
“So the Vice President said, ‘If he offered [to go on leave], we will
accept it.’ He approved it. VP Binay said he will take charge of the
affairs of PDP-Laban, including the duties of the president,” Bautista
said.
‘Party in chaos’
Pimentel admitted that his decision to bolt UNA has caused confusion in his party.
“Aaminin ko nagkakagulo nga kami sa party ngayon dahil sa sitwasyon na
(I admit we’re having problems in the party because of the situation
that) the party is officially in a coalition agreement and yet I cannot
join the agreement because our coalition partner brought somebody into
the coalition that in conscience I cannot run with.”
Pimentel said his solution was for him to inhibit himself from
campaign matters but take charge of other affairs like membership and
the formation of chapters.
Bautista, however, said that Pimentel’s solution is impractical and unacceptable to other party leaders.
“How can he remain as PDP-Laban president and run under a different
political [alliance]? That’s totally untenable and disruptive, causing
confusion,” said Bautista. – Rappler.com
