‘Du30’

If there is one major turnaround in political fortunes in our country these days, it would be the once moribund Partidong Demokratiko ng Pilipinas-Laban ng Bayan, or PDP-Laban for short, reaping it to the hilt. Of course, the PDP-Laban got a second wind of sorts now that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte officially accepted his nomination as their presidential standard bearer in the coming May 2016 elections.

Immediately after Duterte finally declared he is definitely throwing his hat in the May 2016 presidential race, incumbent PDP-Laban chieftain Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III posted last Nov. 22 in the party’s Facebook account: “To ALL PDP-LABAN: GO na tayo, we have a presidential candidate!”

The most notable PDP-Laban stalwarts before its recent break-up include the father of Sen. Pimentel, ex-Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Vice President Jejomar Binay, the late Sen. Joker Arroyo and ex-Tarlac Rep. Jose  “Peping”Cojuangco.

Although semi-retired from politics, the elder Pimentel continues to be the wise old man of the PDP-Laban even as his namesake son Koko is the one running the party affairs. This he told us during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay last Wednesday at Luneta Hotel. Now walking with a cane, Pimentel confessed he is always teary-eyed due to his cataract problems.

He is actually turning 82 years old today. But he is still stuck to his pet name “Nene” which we Filipinos associate with little young girls. A staunch human rights lawyer, Nene disclosed he advised Duterte to tone down his iron-fisted statements in public about summary execution of suspected criminals.

In fatherly advice, Nene asked the outspoken mayor of Davao City to instead publicly push for restoration of death penalty in the Philippines as the legal way to deal with hardened criminals or those beyond rehabilitation.

Nene says Duterte is the best presidential bet to deliver an enduring peace in Mindanao by pursuing federalism as the solution to the peace problem in Southern Philippines. But this requires, of course, the amendment of the country’s 1987 Constitution which will never happen under the Liberal Party-controlled Congress of outgoing  President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III.

The pro-Charter change stand of the PDP-Laban was the reason they did not coalesce with Aquino’s LP but with the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) of Binay and the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) of former President Joseph Estrada.

The PDP-Laban was founded on the formal merger of two political parties in February 1982 when the two most dominant opposition groups banded together against the ruling administration party Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) headed by the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

PDP is headed by the elder Pimentel who led the arch critics of the Marcos martial law regime and fought its abuses with fellow human rights lawyers Joker and Binay, among others. Despite being kept in military detention, former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. headed the Laban.

The slaying of Aquino in August 1983 set off a series of events in the country’s history. It culminated in the February 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution when Aquino’s widow, Mrs. Corazon “Cory” Aquino was swept into office as the country’s President.

After leading the revolutionary government for almost a year, Mrs. Aquino was able to produce a new Constitution that restored democracy in our country. Thus, she earned the honor here and abroad as the “icon of democracy” in the Philippines.

The country’s 1987 Constitution gave birth to, among other things, a multi-party system in the Philippines. But the worse result of this multi-party system is the emergence of political butterflies, or politicians who change parties at a drop of a hat.

Former President Aquino, however, stayed apolitical and did not identify herself with any political parties until she left Malacañang Palace six years later.

Before Mrs. Aquino stepped down from office, she anointed then Defense Secretary and EDSA-1 hero, Fidel Ramos as her administration-backed candidate in the May 1992 presidential elections. Ramos had to form his own political party which he called as Lakas-Tao.

As the party in power, other political parties gravitated to Lakas-Tao after Ramos won. The new ruling administration party was re-named as Lakas-NUCD. Or this is the combination of merged parties of Mrs. Aquino’s Laban allies with National Union of Christian Democrats (NUCD).

And as we say, the rest is history repeating itself. The Lakas-NUCD dissipated as many of its members in Congress and newly elected local government officials jumped to Estrada’s PMP.

But when Estrada was ousted in January 2001, the Lakas-NUCD came back into power through Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Ramos continued to be the nominal chieftain of the Lakas-NUCD which Mrs.Arroyo’s allies in Congress led by ex-Speaker Jose de Venecia later renamed to Lakas-CMD, or Lakas-Christian-Muslim Democrats.

Then as congressman of the lone district in the city of Makati, Joker used to joke that PDP-Laban spends the “most lavish” political party convention in a five-star hotel. They held the PDP-Laban convention at the former Manila Mandarin Hotel “for a party of five.”

This has been the self-deprecating joke among the PDP-Laban stalwarts who remained most loyal to the party through the years. Mandarin has been closed down since last year and currently undergoing demolition to give way to a new five-star hotel. Arroyo passed away last October due to complications following surgery in the US.

In March last year, Binay resigned as chairman of PDP-Laban following intra-party dispute with the young Pimentel who chaired the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee sub-committee hearing on alleged anomalous deals entered into by the Vice President while he was still mayor of Makati.

Binay is running as UNA’s presidential bet versus Duterte, et.al.

Now, Duterte supporters predict with certainty it’s now the turn of the PDP-Laban to be the new party in power starting June 30, 2016. That is, if “Du30” (as some of his supporters coined his name) is not disqualified by Comelec.

“30” denotes the end of story. Will the same have meaning for “Du30,” as in Duterte?