• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer said on Monday that he respects the decision of elected officials in Negros Occidental who would want to resign from the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino (PDP).
Ferrer, a personal adviser of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Western Visayas, however, clarified that there is no order from the President for them to do so.
The PDP is headed by former President Rodrigo Duterte.
On the other hand, Marcos leads the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), where some PDP members have already joined.
Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez as well as about 200 elected officials of Negros Occidental, including mayors, vice mayors, councilors and some board members, took their oath as PDP-Laban members in 2016 after attending an orientation at a hotel in Bacolod City.
Benitez earlier said that he heard reports on the mass resignation of PDP members in the province.
Those who already resigned were the group of Victorias City Vice Mayor Abelardo Bantug III and nine city councilors, following the announcement of lawyer Jesus Hinlo, deputy secretary general of PDP Visayas, that the party is eyeing to field former Victorias City Mayor Francis Frederick Palanca against the incumbent Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson in the May 2025 midterm elections.
The PDP members in Negros Occidental are either affiliated with the United Negros Alliance (UNegA) or Love Negros, which already expressed their full support to the planned reelection bid of Lacson.
Ferrer, who heads the UNegA, is a member of the National Unity Party while Lacson, who belongs to Love Negros, affiliates with the Nationalist People’s Coalition.
In a separate interview, Hinlo said it is premature to comment until the mass resignation happens.
He also said that PDP members, who may have complaints, can contact him anytime.
Cadiz City Mayor Salvador Escalante, UNegA secretary-general, said there is no need for him to resign from PDP, stressing the possibility that he couldn’t have been accepted in the PDP before.
Escalante said they have not received any feedback from PDP on the papers they submitted. | GB
