THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday resolved to recognize the faction of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi as the legitimate party wing of the ruling PDP-Laban.

In a resolution, the Comelec Special Second Division said that “Chairman President Rodrigo Duterte’s chairmanship is an undisputed and well-settled fact in the aforementioned dates.”

“The fact that he presided over the election of the new sets of party officers and committee chairpersons validates the entire process, making the above-enumerated officers as the duly elected officers of PDP-Laban,” the resolution read.

The poll body earlier named PDP-Laban as the dominant majority party for the May 9 elections.

Based on Resolution 10787 issued on Wednesday, the watchers of the dominant majority and dominant minority parties shall be given preference if the space in the canvassing or consolidation center is insufficient.

Two factions of the PDP-Laban had eyed for recognition before the Comelec — the one led by Cusi and the other by Senators Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Manny Pacquiao.

The Cusi faction previously filed a petition before the Comelec declaring Pacquiao and Pimentel as “illegal representatives of the ruling party.”

Pimentel, in response, had called on the poll body to dismiss the said petition, calling the other faction as “usurpers.”

Meanwhile, Pimentel, a party stalwart, said they will file a motion for reconsideration to appeal the decision. He noted that the decision is “not immediately executory.”

“We will raise again the following points and we hope the Comelec en banc will look at these issues with eyes wide open: the petition was fatally defective – it was filed for and on behalf of a political party which is not a human being without any Board Resolution authorizing its filing!” he said.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Lee Ann P. Ducusin