South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. addresses farmers and agricultural stakeholders during the Consolidated Rice Production and Mechanization Program Farmer’s Field Day and Harvest Festival on Friday, 15 September 2023, in Barangay Dajay, Surallah, South Cotabato. MindaNews photo by BONG S. SARMIENTO
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 15 December) – Members of the ruling Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) have elected a “new set of officials,” ousting South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. as its president for “loss of trust and confidence.”
But in a press conference Friday here, an undaunted Tamayo branded the general assembly that ousted him as “illegitimate and a nuisance activity.”
A published report (not by this news outfit) said that the PFP elected Thursday its new set of officers to fill “a leadership vacuum” in a general assembly held at the Linden Suites in Pasig City.
Former three-term Catanduanes governor Leandro Verceles Jr. was elected party president and former Capas, Tarlac Mayor Jose Antonio Rodriguez Jr. as secretary general.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was chosen party chairman while Special Assistant to the President Antonio Lagdameo Jr. was elected party vice president.
A document obtained by this reporter said “they are interim national officers appointed by the national directorate until the election in the next national assembly.”
It identified Lorenzo Sagucio Jr as Vice President for Visayas, Assam Ulangkaya for Mindanao and none for Luzon.
Sounding unfazed by the development, Tamayo said that Malacañang “does not recognize the new set of PFP officials.”
After they learned about it, Tamayo said that PFP counsel George Briones went to see Lagdameo.
They discussed the matter “in passing, indicating it is not a matter of great importance,” the governor added.
Tamayo said that “97 percent of the national officers and provincial chairmen are still intact behind his leadership.”
Based on the papers submitted by the PFP to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) last October, Tamayo and his set of officers remain as the party officials, according to him.
“We have been waiting for a complaint at the Comelec on the matter. In the absence of that (complaint), this is a nuisance activity that seeks to destroy the party from further gaining strength,” he said in Filipino, referring to the election of the new PFP officers.
“I expected this to happen. This kind of thing also happened with the PDP-Laban during the Duterte administration,” he noted.
Tamayo admitted he had not spoken with the President about the matter, though.
Somebody from Malacañang, whom Tamayo did not name, called him to ask if he had convened a party general assembly Thursday afternoon, the governor said, responding “no.”
The PFP fielded Marcos Jr. as standard bearer in the May 2022 presidential race. He took his oath as party member before Tamayo, two-term governor of South Cotabato since 2019.
The party passed the resolution endorsing Marcos as its presidential bet during a national convention in Tupi, South Cotabato on September 18, 2021. Tupi is the hometown of Tamayo, where he served as three-term mayor before running for governor in 2019.
The PFP was accredited by the Comelec in 2018.
Tamayo noted it is the youngest political party in the country to have successfully fielded a candidate in the presidential race.
He called on the party members to toe his leadership team, adding the “PFP remains intact and does not recognize the new set of officials as they are disgruntled individuals.”
Tamayo said that it will be the Comelec that will recognize the real officers of the party. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
