Malacanang said on Monday it was a "personal stance" of Senator Koko Pimentel if he would not support the resolution of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan pushing for President Rodrigo Duterte as a vice presidential candidate in the 2022 elections since the party's council assembly was unauthorized and an unlawful gathering.

"That's a personal stance of Senator Koko Pimentel. Unless he can claim that he owns the PDP-Laban, the whole party must be consulted. But we leave that to PDP-Laban," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a televised press briefing.

Pimentel, the former president of PDP-Laban, earlier said Senator Manny Pacquiao would be a "good choice" as presidential bet of PDP-Laban. While he has been expressing his plans for the Filipinos, Pacquiao has yet to official declare his intention to run for president.

Pacquiao, however, has a rift with some members of the PDP-Laban after they conducted what he called as an illegal and unathorized council meeting in Cebu recently.

During the meeting, which was presided over by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, vice president of the ruling party, PDP-Laban came out with a resolution calling for Duterte to run for vice president and it would be up to him to choose his presidential bet.

Pimentel, son of late Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. who founded the PDP-Laban, said they should not allow a party outsider or those who just recently joined the group to be nominated as their presidential standard bearer.

He also rejected the party resolution endorsing Duterte as the vice presidential bet, expressing a similar opinion as that of Pacquiao's that the recent council assembly was unauthorized and unlawful. Celerina Monte/DMS