Hugpong strikes alliance with Eastern Visayas party

TACLOBAN CITY — Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), a regional party led by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, has formed an alliance with Tingog Sinirangan, a party-list group based in Eastern Visayas, on Wednesday.

Duterte said with HNP’s alliance with Tingog Sinirangan as well as with Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats, headed by former Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, the group would endorse candidates supporting the administration of her father, President Duterte.

“We want to establish an alliance with them so we can push [the same] senatorial lineup for the 2019 elections,” the mayor said in an interview, after she addressed a crowd of around 6,000 at Tacloban City Convention Center.

“We are endorsing 14 candidates but we only need 12 [senators]. So it’s up to you who will be your 12,” Mayor Duterte told the crowd.

Offering

Before she attended the launch, Mayor Duterte offered a wreath at the Yolanda Memorial Monument, inside the compound of the convention center, where the names of 2,200 Tacloban residents who died during the onslaught of Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) in 2013 are written. —Joey A. Gabieta