Sen. Manny Pacquiao will skip the PDP-Laban national assembly on July 17 where he sits as president, a party official said Thursday.
PDP-Laban executive director Ronwald Munsayac said the party's national leadership, grassroots membership, and old guards view the national assembly as an "unauthorized" activity.
During the national assembly, the party is expected to discuss their plans for the 2022 elections.
"Any resolution or decision that will be borne out of this unauthorized activity will be ignored," Munsayac said.
The national assembly was set during the May 31 national council meeting of PDP-Laban in Cebu led by Energy Sec. Alfonso Cusi, which Pacquiao asked his partymates to boycott as it supposedly violated the party's rules.
During this meeting, the PDP-Laban national council adopted a resolution urging President Rodrigo Duterte, their chairman, to run for vice president in the 2022 elections and choose his possible running mate.
Despite the apparent factions in PDP-Laban, Munsayac assured that Pacquiao, who is reportedly running for president next year, still had the "overwhelming support" of the party's grassroots and old members. He said only around 100 of the 100,000 party members attended the May 31 meeting presided by Cusi.
"[They are] mostly politicians and appointed officials in the executive department. But to be fair to the politicians, they attended because they believed it had the blessings of Malacañang," he added.
Pacquiao earlier called on Cusi to prioritize addressing the country's problems, including the rotational brownouts experienced recently in Luzon, over politics.
Last March, Pacquiao also told Cusi not to "poison" the minds of their partymates into discussing politics at this time after a party resolution urging Duterte to run for vice president in 2022 circulated.
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