Hugpong, not PDP-Laban, is President’s party — Roque

Is the administration party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), now being left out in the cold?

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on Monday he had joined Hugpong ng Pagbabago, the regional political party organized by the President’s daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, because this was the party of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The President ran under the PDP-Laban in 2016.

Roque, along with Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go, joined the party, which ousted Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez had once described as part of the opposition.

Mayor Duterte lambasted Alvarez for that remark.

Go and Roque are said to be running for senator in next year’s elections.

At a press briefing in Davao Occidental where he took his oath as party member, Roque said the President had told him that Hugpong had always been his political party ever since he ran for mayor of Davao City 23 years ago.

“I think it’s only right that I also join his party. This is without prejudice to alliances that Hugpong may enter into, including PDP-Laban,” Roque said. —Christine O. Avendaño