The political opposition will form a coalition and create its own slate for the mid-term elections in 2019, two Liberal Party (LP) senators said on Monday.
Senators Bam Aquino and Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan dubbed the opposition coalition “The Resistance,” which they said would field slates in the local and senatorial races.
Aquino said he would be among the coalition’s senatorial candidates.
Pangilinan, the LP president, said his party was still in talks with other groups and individuals.
He said he would name the members of the coalition only after “the talks have been firmed up, hopefully after the Holy Week.”
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, the president of the administration party Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, welcomed the entry of an opposition coalition in 2019.
“The people must be given choices or alternatives,” Pimentel said in a news briefing at the Senate.
In a television interview on Monday, Aquino said the country needed a “slate that’s … willing to oppose, willing
to stand up even if it’s unpopular, and even when it’s dangerous.” —Christine O. Avendaño