• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Members of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP) in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City led by its provincial chairman, Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, have resigned en masse from the political party.
“As PDP members, we were not even invited to any of their gatherings and meetings, what do you expect?” Benitez said on Monday, May 27.
The PDP, which has dropped the Laban (Lakas ng Bayan) from its party name, is chaired by former President Rodrigo Duterte.
The said group of PDP members, who met with Benitez at his residence in Bacolod City on May 25, signed a manifesto stating their irrevocable resignation from the party, with many more expressing their intention to sign.
He said those who resigned were eight incumbent mayors, five vice mayors and a number of councilors.
“We are considering everything,” Benitez said when asked if they will join the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“As a group, we will talk about it again, where we will be going,” he added.
The late governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. led Negros Occidental officials in supporting then Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II, who was defeated by Duterte in the race for the presidency in 2016.
A year after, Benitez, then congressman of the Third District, together with Marañon as well as about 200 elected officials in the province, joined and took their oath as PDP-Laban members.
A month ago, the group of Victorias City Vice Mayor Abelardo Bantug III and nine city councilors resigned from the PDP.
Their move came after lawyer Jesus Hinlo, deputy secretary-general of PDP Visayas, announced that the party is eyeing to field former Victorias City Mayor Francis Frederick Palanca against incumbent Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson in the 2025 midterm polls without consulting them.
Almost all PDP elected officials in Negros Occidental are members of the Love Negros-United Negros Alliance coalition that is supporting the reelection bid of Lacson. | GB
