Sara Duterte PHOTO/Arjoy Ceniza
Amid reports that a number of Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) members have been jumping on to her political party, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte said Hugpong ng Pagbabago had been conceived as a regional political party and that its leadership has not yet decided about going national.
“HNP is a region 11 political party and was not made to go on a national level,” Mayor Duterte said in a statement released to the media Friday. “We just wanted to create a strong region XI. We did not foresee this growing interest of other politicians from other regions,” said Duterte, confirming the growing interest among politicians to shift allegiance to her party.
“It will be a difficult decision to go national and I am not ready to decide on it right now,” said the Davao City mayor, whose spat with Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez in February this year over her political party was reported to be the cause of Alvarez’s ouster as Speaker of the House of Representatives only hours before President Duterte, her father, was out to deliver his State of the Nation Address (Sona).
“Even the other officers are not keen on deciding on this,” Sara said, on HnP’s prospect of going national. “But we are set to create alliances with other groups to help each other. I do not have the list with me. There are no talks with national parties, only local parties.”