United Nationalist Alliance spokesman JV Bautista, in a televion show, announced that Sen. Koko Pimentel is now on leave as president of the Partido Laban Democratiko (PDP) as Bautista also announced the official line-up of the UNA senatorial bets, with two new additional candidates, naming former Sen. Richard Gordon and former Ambassador to the US Ernesto Maceda.
He also said that Sen. Loren Legarda will be in the UNA slate, but that the alliance will come up with a bigger announcement in time.
With Pimentel having joined the Aquino administration Liberal Party coalition slate as a guest candidate, Pimentel is now out of the PDP-Laban coalition and that Vice President Jejomar Binay, chairman of the PDP-Laban, is now taking charge of the party.
Pimentel, however, quickly announced that he had not taken a leave of absence from the PDP-Laban and remains as the party presiudent.
But Bautista said that party leaders had asked Pimentel to take a leave of absence since a conflict of interest has arisen from the senator’s decision to join the LP coalition.
“It was the party that had  asked Senator Pimentel to take a leave as president of the party… For the moment he is not the president of PDP-Laban,” Bautista said.
Pimentel was reported to have sent a text, saying: “I have not gone on leave from PDP-Laban as there is no reason for me to do so. There is no clamor for it as I enjoy the support of the party members especially the non-politician low-key members.”
Bautista was quoted as saying, countering the Pimentel claim: “You cannot tolerate a situation where one of the leaders of UNA and then a president of PDP-Laban for that matter would run in another political party that is the the foe of the UNA senatorial slate. It is potentially disruptive of the functioning of the party. It disturbs a lot of our local members,” he said.
Bautista stressed that given the nuances of Philippine politics, and with Pimentel running for an opposite party, taking a leave would be the best move.
It will be recalled that Pimentel decided to join the LP coalition candidate because he claimed that he could not stomach the thought of being on the same stage and slate with former Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri whom he claimed cheated him.
But even as he moved over to the LP coalition, Pimentel apparently fails to see the anomlous situation he is now in, due to his decision to cut off from the UNA coaltion.
As far as UNA is concerned, he cannot still be president of PDP-Laban and attend to all the political activities surrounding the party, while being a candidate of the administration party.
Pimentel found his being in the same slate with Zubiri “anomalous” but does not seem to realize that he cannot have the presidency of PDP-Laban currently with his being a candidate in the administration slate.
Pimentel claims that his PDP followers have not called on him to go on leave, but Bautista said that it is the leaders of the PDP-Laban that made the decision for him to take a leave of absence.
It is evident that Pimentel would want PDP-Laban  to campaign and vote for him, but at the same time, there would be problems on the grassroorts level of the PDP-Laban as its chairman is also a leader in UNA, with whom the PDP-Laban  has  forged a coalition.
With the official entry of two more UNA bets, this places the number of bets at 9, including Senator Legarda.
The others are Sen. Gringo Honasan, Rep. Jack Enrile, Rep. JV Ejercito, Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia,  Zubiri and businessman Joey de Venecia, Gordon and Maceda.
Bautista, in the same TV program said that “Loren Legarda has already signified, very clearly, her intention (to join UNA) because she told us that she has already obtained permission from Danding Cojuangco of the (Nationalist People’s Coalition) that she’s going to run in the UNA slate,” he said.