THE ruling Liberal Party of President Benigno Aquino III has lost two allies in the Nacionalista Party (NP) and Partido Demokratikong Pilipino or PDP-Laban after the two parties agreed to bolt the coalition and form an alliance to back Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s presidential bid in the 2016 elections.
The NP-PDP-Laban merger was firmed up Monday night during a three-hour meeting at the Hotel Sofitel, which was attended by the top leadership of both parties and Duterte.
“It’s a done deal. The official announcement of the merger of the two parties with Duterte as the standard-bearer will be made last week of September,” a highly reliable source, who was privy to the meeting, told The Standard.
The two parties will meet again in mid-September to decide on Duterte’s running mate.
“It is a toss-up between Senators [Ferdinand] Bongbong Marcos [II] and Allan Peter Cayetano, both NP stalwarts,” said the source who requested anonymity.
NP president former Senator Manuel Villar and his wife Senator Cynthia Villar clinched the agreement with former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., and his son and namesake Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, chairman emeritus and president of PDP-Laban, respectively, in the presence of Duterte.
The Villars and Pimentels gave Duterte the option to pick between Marcos and Cayetano as his running mate.
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, also an NP member and who has repeatedly announced his availability to run for a higher office, was not considered.
The Villars and Pimentels have yet to inform President Aquino, the LP chairman, of their decision to leave the administration coalition primarily because they could no longer support the candidacy of the President’s anointed one, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II.
Roxas was endorsed by the President as the LP standard bearer for 2016. He said he had chosen Roxas because he was in the best position to continue his reform agenda, the much touted “Tuwid na Daan” or straight path.
In the 2013 midterm elections, the NP and PDP-Laban, along with the Nationalist People’s Coalition, National Unity Party, Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino and Akbayan formed the administration alliance that was spearheaded by the LP to bankroll the Team PNoy that won nine of the 12 seats in the Senate.
Cynthia Villar, Cayetano and Trillanes from the NP and the young Pimentel of the PDP-Laban were among those who ran and won under the LP-led Team PNoy.
“The NP and PDP-Laban chose to join forces as the latter insisted they wanted someone from Mindanao and Visayan-speaking to be the country’s next President,” the source said.
“They found Duterte to be the strongest contender that could fill the bill.”
The PDP-Laban earlier adopted Duterte as its standard bearer.
Duterte, according to the source, was comfortable being carried by the NP because his father, former Davao Gov. Vicente Duterte, was also an NP stalwart.
Duterte counts as his bailiwicks the Visayan-speaking Mindanao and the Visayas because his father was a native of Danao, Cebu, in the Visayas and his mother, Soledad Roa, was from Agusan and Misamis in Mindanao.
Duterte said he was comfortable working with either Marcos or Cayetano as his running mate.
Marcos counts as his bailiwicks the North as his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was from Ilocos Norte and his mother and now Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos is a native of Leyte and Samar.
source: Manila Standard Today
Published on: Sep. 01, 2015 at 12:01 am
By: Christine F. Herrera
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