NUP allies with PBBM-led PFP

The National Unity Party (NUP), the second largest political bloc in the House of Representatives, formally sealed an alliance on Sunday with Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), a coalition supporting President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The signing of the pact swelled the numbers of the Marcos-led PFP ahead of the 2025 mid-term polls.

NUP president Lray Villafuerte said the PFP-NUP alliance, serves as a “splendid opportunity” for both parties along with other like-minded groups “to work together on advancing a Bagong Pilipinas that promises a robust and inclusive growth and development  for all Filipinos.”

"This alliance marks another watershed in the history of Philippine electoral politics, and best illustrates that true-blue members of different mainstream political parties, given the right motivation or inspiration,  can transcend partisan politics or personal interests in pursuit of the long-aspired genuine transformation of our public governance, our economy, and our society,” said Villafuerte who was in attendance during the signing of the pact on Saturday morning in Makati City.

The NUP, he added, has also played a key role in assisting the Marcos administration in pursuing and attaining deep and fundamental transformations over the past two years, leading to post-pandemic recovery.

“We are having a formal alliance with the PFP because the NUP is ready and willing to do the hard work that our President needs from all of us Filipinos for Bagong Pilipinas to become a reality," he pointed out.

Villafuerte, however, assured that Bagong Pilipinas is not a mere slogan but a "genuine agenda to truly transform our economy, governance and society—and one that will not come to fruition on its own, but will require very hard work from all of our people, including us members of the political mainstream."

Last month, the Nationalist People’s Coalition and the Lakas-CMD, the most dominant bloc in the House led by Marcos' cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez, also jumped onto the PFP bandwagon.

The NPC has five members in the Senate and 38 in the House. Lakas-CMD, on the other hand, has 100 seats in the House alone.

Earlier this month, the Nacionalista Party, Marcos' former bloc before joining PFP in October 2021, also welcomed the President’s invitation to ally with his current party.

Meanwhile, Vice President Sara Duterte’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago and his father, then president Rodrigo Duterte’s PDP-Laban, have yet to join the alliance for Marcos.

Romualdez, however, said that they will leave the door open for potential collaborations with other political parties.

Earlier this month, the VP made headlines after leaving the Marcos Cabinet as Education Secretary and vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which she headed for nearly two years.

The VP’s sudden resignation further fueled speculation of a collapse in the alliance of the Dutertes with Marcos.

Last week, the VP announced that his father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, and his brothers, Paolo and Sebastian Duterte, the sitting representative of Davao City’s first district and incumbent mayor of the city, respectively, eye to run for the Senate, with Sebastian also being prodded to seek the highest post in the 2028 elections.