Two power centers

One interesting thing about the 2019 midterm elections is presidential daughter Sara Duterte’s attempt to seize control of her political destiny and, apparently, that of Team Duterte, too. As expected, her party Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) is getting stronger by the day, getting adherents because of the inherent weakness of the kind of political system we have.

This has become a challenge for the still official administration party Partido Demokratiko ng Pilipinas-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) of the Pimentels, whose hold on the group has been shaken lately by a faction that wanted to seize control of it. Can the alliance between the Pimentels and the Dutertes, and the PDP-Laban’s distinction of being the administration party survive for long?

The alliance has been untenable from the beginning considering the difference in the viewpoints of the two political clans. Former senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., the PDP-Laban founder is a known progressive and staunch anti-Marcos. President Rodrigo Duterte is the opposite of progressive and is close to the Marcoses. They united out of convenience: PDP-Laban needed a viable presidential bet in 2016 while Duterte needed a national party.

This can be seen in Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III’s stint as Senate president. Koko grudgingly followed the twists and turns of the policies and programs of the Duterte government. Even on how the push for federalism should be handled placed the Pimentels in an awkward position. Consider that the older Pimentel has long been a champion of decentralization. But there were instances when he apparently got frustrated by how the Duterte people is handling the drive.

Pimentel is no longer Senate president, replaced by the better puppet, Sen. Vicente Sotto III. His official reason for his leaving the post is that he is preparing for his reelection bid in 2019. On hindsight, that was a wrong move because it weakened his standing in the Duterte camp. Would Sara have been more daring in his current moves had Pimentel still been Senate president?

Now, the HNP is making great political strides while the PDP-Laban is wracked with dissension. In Cebu, it has named Rep. Benhur Salimbangon as provincial chairman and he promptly claimed that the HNP’s coalition with the smaller National Unity Party NUP), Nacionalista Party (NP) and the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) has made it the strongest group in Cebu.

I reckon that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña wants to have an alliance with HNP, although I doubt that would happen because even if the HNP and the PDP-Laban have yet to forge an alliance, Osmeña is not necessarily in good terms with Sara. Although considering Osmeña’s wily ways, nothing might be impossible.

Will the PDP-Laban eventually draw the line as far as its relationship with HNP is concerned? That may depend on how aggressive HNP and Sara would be and on how intense the Pimentel’s political differences with Duterte would be. But one thing is certain: the Duterte administration now has two centers of power.