NP joining ruling coalition

The Nacionalista Party (NP) is all set to join the administration coalition led by the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), according to House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

The NP’s entry is expected to boost the chances of the ruling party’s candidates in the national and local elections next year.

“[The Lakas-CMD] was the first alliance partner, followed by the NPC (Nationalist People’s Coalition), and the NUP (National Unity Party) just last weekend. I believe the NP will be following suit,” Romualdez said.

“So all the major political parties will be in alliance with the Partido Federal of the President,” he added.

The NP, Marcos’s party before he joined the PFP in October 2021, is said to be sealing an alliance with the President’s current party by the end of the month.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, a stalwart of the NP, the country’s oldest political party, said in a press conference on Tuesday that both parties were firming up the coalition.

Barbers said fellow NP member, presidential sister Senator Imee Marcos, is poised to be part of the administration party’s senatorial slate in 2025.

Senator Marcos had previously said she was uncertain if her brother would endorse her in her re-election bid next year.

She projected that some 50 candidates would be seeking a Senate seat in the upcoming polls.

Romualdez, however, said it was up to the President and the leaders of the parties within the PFP to decide whom to endorse for the senatorial lineup.

“The leadership of the alliance from each party will have a consensus. Maybe there are recommendations [and] that is the choice of our President, of our leaders of the coalition or alliance as we call it,” the House chief said.

The Romualdez-led Lakas-CMD, the biggest political bloc in the House of Representatives, was the first to ally with his cousin President Marcos’ PFP.

Vice President Sara Duterte’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago and her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte’s, PDP Laban have yet to join the bandwagon.

Romualdez had earlier said they would leave the door open to a potential collaboration with other political parties, including the Dutertes.

Earlier this month, the VP left the Marcos Cabinet, giving up her posts as Education secretary and vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

Her sudden resignation fueled speculations of a collapse of the Duterte and Marcos alliance.

Last week, the VP announced that her father and her brothers, Paolo and Sebastian Duterte, Davao City’s first district representative and mayor, respectively, will run for the Senate next year.

The former president, however, denied he would run for senator.