BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The possibility of a split within PDP-Laban due to differences among its leaders “won’t matter much” to the United Negros Alliance, its secretary general, Cadiz City Mayor Salvador Escalante Jr., said.
Almost majority of the UNegA members, led by the late Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr., were among the 11,000 Negrenses, who took their oaths as PDP-Laban members in 2017.
Escalante said such move was aimed to coalesce with PDP-Laban to show support to President Rodrigo Duterte, although they did not vote for him during the 2016 elections. UNegA members supported the presidential bid of Mar Roxas.
Since they supported Roxas, who lost in the election, they joined PDP-Laban to support the programs of the President.
Surigao del Sur. Rep. Johnny Pimentel, in an interview with One News, raised the possibility of a split within PDP-Laban as tension grew between supporters of President Duterte and Senator Manny Pacquaio.
Escalante recalled that when Gov. Marañon bolted from the Nationalist People’s Coalition, he did not affiliate with any national political party, except the UNegA.
“If the PDP-Laban will split or whatever, it won’t matter much to us in UNegA,” Escalante stressed.
PDP-Laban will have its national assembly on July 17.
Escalante said that UNegA chairman, Sagay City Mayor Alfredo “Thirdie” Marañon III, expressed his intention to hold a general assembly among the members, per district, to avoid violating the mandated health protocols amid the Covid pandemic.*