Cadiz City Mayor Salvador Escalante, United Negros Alliance secretary general, said on Monday, May 6, that there is no need for him to resign from the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan since he never received his appointment papers as a member.
Escalante said he, then governor Alfredo Marañon and other Negros Occidental officials underwent membership training and took their oaths as PDP Laban members in September 2016 but never received papers acknowledging them as party members.
PDP Laban led by then president Rodrigo Duterte was the ruling party at the time.
“There is no need for me to resign since I think was not accepted into the party…from the onset I was a bogus PDP Laban member,” Escalante said.
Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez last week said there will be a mass resignation of Negros officials from PDP because they are no longer happy with the party.
“I did not experience happiness” in PDP, Escalante said.
About 200 Negros Occidental officials led by Marañon took their oaths as PDP Laban members in Bacolod City in September 2016.
More than 11,000 Negrenses, including local government officials, also took their oaths as PDP Laban members in Bacolod and Victorias cities in October 2017.*