Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA — Four Liberal Party (LP) lawmakers led by the country’s first transgender congresswoman and a former movie actor have jumped on the administration bandwagon.
In another round of defections from LP, the decimated ruling party of the previous administration, Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman, Quezon City Rep. Alfred Vargas, Lanao del Sur Rep. Ansaruddin Adiong, and North Cotabato Rep. Nancy Catamco have moved to President Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban party.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Deputy Speaker Miro Quimbo, the highest-ranking Liberal in the House, confirmed the move in separate text messages to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“Said members talked to me previously advising me of their move,” said Quimbo, a Marikina representative.
Alvarez was to swear in the four new PDP-Laban members on Wednesday afternoon.
The transfers would bring to 28 the number of Liberals in the chamber, from 32, a far cry from its membership of 100-plus Liberals during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III.
By contrast, the PDP-Laban, previously a virtual nonentity in the 292-seat House with only three original members, has further strengthened its membership base with more than 90.
The party has a standing coalition with other major parties, including the Nacionalista Party, the National Unity Party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition, and the LP, to form a “supermajority” in Congress. SFM