Hearing on PDP-Laban factions to start next week, says Comelec chair Abas

The hearing to determine which PDP-Laban faction is legitimate will begin next week, Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sheriff Abas said Friday.

"We will be conducting a hearing after we got the answer from the Pimentel-Pacquiao wing. Mayroon na silang answer and we will set the hearing maybe next week. So start na tayo ng hearing, and after that we will decide na after the clarificatory hearing," Abas said in a virtual press conference.

The PDP-Laban faction led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi had filed a petition before the poll body to declare Senators Manny Pacquiao and Aquilino Pimentel III as illegal representatives of the party.

The poll body then ordered Pacquiao and Pimentel to respond to the petition filed by the Cusi wing.

Pacquiao’s group has maintained that they are the legitimate PDP-Laban group.

Pimentel, on the other hand, emphasized that he has been a member of PDP-Laban since the 1980s. His father, the late Senate President Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel, Jr., was one of the founder of the party.

The rift between the two camps started when Cusi’s group pushed for PDP-Laban national council meetings and assemblies without the blessing of Pacquiao and Pimentel.—AOL, GMA News