Leadership row loomsin Marcos party PFP

KORONADAL CITY—A leadership tussle is brewing in the political party of President Marcos.

Some members of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) convened what was dubbed a general assembly in Pasig City on Thursday and elected a new set of officials, ousting South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. as president.

Replacing Tamayo is former Catanduanes Gov. Leandro Verceles Jr. and Special Assistant to the President Antonio Lagdameo Jr. as vice president. Elected secretary general was former Mayor Antonio Rodriguez Jr. of Capas, Tarlac, who replaced retired Gen. Thompson Lantion.The assembly also elected President Marcos as national chair.

‘Nuisance’A news report of Thursday’s gathering said the party supposedly removed Tamayo for “loss of trust and confidence.”

But in a press conference here on Friday, Tamayo dismissed the Pasig gathering as “illegitimate and a nuisance activity,” describing those involved as “disgruntled individuals.”

A document obtained by this reporter showed that the PFP officials supposedly elected on Thursday “are interim national officers appointed by the national directorate until the election in the next national assembly.”

The document identified Lorenzo Sagucio Jr. as vice president for the Visayas and Assam Ulangkaya for Mindanao. No one was named for Luzon.

According to Tamayo, Malacañang “does not recognize the new set of PFP officials.”After they learned about it, he said PFP general counsel George Briones went to see Lagdameo and that they discussed the matter in “passing, indicating it is not a matter of great importance.”

Waiting for complaintTamayo said “97 percent of the national officers and provincial chairmen are still intact behind my leadership,” stressing that the papers the PFP submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in October identified him and his set of officers as the party leaders.

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“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.

Tamayo admitted he had not yet spoken with the President about the matter. “Somebody from Malacañang,” he said, called him on Thursday to ask if he had convened a general assembly, and that he simply answered no to the caller.Candidate endorsementFounded in 2018, the PFP was then candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s party when he ran for President in the May 2022 elections. He took his oath as a PFP member before Tamayo, who himself won as governor of South Cotabato in 2019 as a PFP bet.

It was during the party’s national convention in Tupi, South Cotabato, in 2021 that the PFP endorsed Marcos’ candidacy.

The PFP claims the distinction of being the youngest political party in the country’s history to have fielded a victorious candidate for President. INQ