LOCAL political party Kugi Uswag Sugbo (Kusug) will continue to uphold its alliance with the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), and it will cast its lot with the faction that is behind President Rodrigo Duterte’s candidacy for Vice President in the 2022 elections.
This was confirmed Monday, Sept. 20, 2021, by Kusug president Raymond Alvin Garcia, following the announcement Sunday that a rival faction in PDP-Laban led by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III had endorsed senator-boxer Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao as the party’s presidential bet in the 2022 polls.
Garcia, who is majority floor leader of the Cebu City Council, said that when they ran for office in the 2019 mid-term elections, PDP-Laban was their national party.
Now that the PDP-Laban has split into two factions, one headed by Pimentel, and the other by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, which last month endorsed President Duterte’s run for the vice presidency, Kusug will go with the Cusi faction.
“What our coalition agreed on was that since that was the national party we carried in the 2019 elections, then we will really go with President Rodrigo Duterte. And since President Duterte is now with the Cusi wing, it is obvious that we will be with the Cusi wing and not with the Pimental wing,” Garcia said.
Support
Metropolitan Cebu Water District chairman Jose Daluz III, campaign manager of Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella in the 2019 mid-term elections and an official of the PDP-Laban-Cebu City, also voiced his support for the group of President Duterte, according to Garcia.
The PDP-Laban faction led by Cusi has endorsed Sen. Bong Go for President and Duterte for Vice President. But while Duterte accepted his endorsement for Vice President, Go has declined his for President.
Garcia said their coalition of local parties will still support the candidates of the administration.
Kusug is in coalition with Partido Barug of Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama and Partido Panaghiusa of Daluz.
Garcia will be the runningmate of Rama, who has declared his intention to run for mayor of Cebu City in 2022. (PAC / CTL)