Press Release
September 10, 2015

PDP Laban holds political caucus to identify pressing national issues

The Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan (PDP Laban) today enjoined those eyeing the presidency to focus on pressing national issues, like crime and corruption, instead of character assassination, in a run-up to next year's national and local elections.

PDP Laban president Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III said this was the consensus of various political parties, and party-lists and non-government organizations who met in a recent political caucus at the historic Club Filipino in San Juan, Metro Manila.

He said rampant criminality and breakdown of law and order and other peace and order problems became the top issues identified in the caucus followed closely by widespread corruption that should be discussed by declared presidential candidates.

The PDP Laban, he stressed, is always guided by its principle of consultative and participatory democracy to identify the leading national issues in collaboration with other political parties and groups in the country.

Equally important, he said, is for the presumptive presidential bets of the different political parties to tackle issues on the need for structural, political and economic reforms and the electoral process that has been both bloody and expensive in the past.

Pimentel said the multi-party political caucus also saw the importance of tackling various pending proposals to amend the restrictive economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, and calls to adopt a parliamentary system of government in favour of the current presidential form.

The PDP Laban, he said, has been advocating a federal form of government to end decades of separatist movement in Mindanao, and decentralize government's resources to hasten development in a country that is divided by several islands.

Pimentel said how to end generational poverty, lower the high-cost of living, raise the quality of life, and attain inclusive economic growth are among urgent issues that should be prioritize in the discussions of these politicians from opposing political parties.

The PDP Laban, he said, would conduct more caucuses in the different areas of the country as part of the party's consultative and participatory democracy.

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