Andaya: PDP-Laban solons eyeing Sara’s party

Davao City Mayor Inday Sarah Duterte. EDWIN BACASMAS/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Many House members of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) are planning to shift allegiance to Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte’s party, Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), according to a senior lawmaker.

House Deputy Speaker Rolando Andaya Jr. on Thursday said “quite a handful” of congressmen were “seriously considering” the move, but none had expressed their desire to do so.

But Andaya pointed out that HNP was only a regional political party, which could coalesce with a national party like Lakas-CMD to gain national stature.

Newly installed Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was the leader of Lakas before she transferred to PDP-Laban in October last year.

Asked whether Arroyo would return to Lakas and lead it, Andaya said he doubted she would because PDP-Laban supported her rise to Speaker.

Andaya said the looming shift in allegiance was due to the “disenchantment” of many congressmen who were sidelined from PDP-Laban’s provincial or regional posts.

‘Disenchantment’

“What triggered all this mess, which eventually led to the change of leadership, was not the own doing of Speaker [Pantaleon] Alvarez, but it was the way that PDP grew after the assumption of the President to power,” Andaya told reporters in a phone interview.

He said there was “disenchantment” among congressmen because they were “boxed out or kept in the dark” in favor of the provincial and regional party leaders who had emerged, although they were “latecomers” to the party. The congressmen felt they should have been supported by Alvarez for those posts “but that did not happen,” he added.

Andaya said PDP-Laban currently had “more than a hundred” members in the House.

On Monday, former President Arroyo sealed her return to power after 184 House members elected her as the new Speaker, ending Alvarez’s two-year grip on the post.

She had been rumored to replace Alvarez since February this year following a rift between Alvarez and the President’s daughter, which supposedly came after he allegedly called HNP part of the opposition and bragged that he could impeach Mr. Duterte. Alvarez has denied these claims by the Davao mayor.

Several House members said the Davao mayor helped rally congressmen to support Arroyo’s bid for Speaker, making calls to some of them to vote for the former President.

Speaking to residents of Ipil town in Zamboanga Sibugay province on Thursday, Mr. Duterte acknowledged that his daughter was both tough and naughty.

Duterte on ‘maldita’

Mr. Duterte said his daughter had apparently done more for Davao City than him when he was mayor.

“What have I done? Go to Davao, walk the streets 24 hours,” he said, referring to Davao’s reputation as a safe city. “But Inday must have overdone it.”

“As early as 12 a.m., no one could be seen smoking anymore, Davao begins to feel like Good Friday, and that’s because she’s maldita (naughty),” he said. “You could not win an argument, especially with a daughter.”

“You’ll get a sermon. She’s very strict. Try to order beer and she’ll make you drink all of it,” he said. —WITH A REPORT FROM GERMELINA LACORTE