Liberal Party, PDP-Laban forge House alliance

The Liberal Party (LP) and PDP- Laban have agreed to forge an alliance in the House of Representatives leading to the formation of a large proDuterte administration bloc in the chamber, a senior lawmaker said yesterday.

The House member, who declined to be identified, said Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. – who is vice chairman of the LP – and Davao del Norte representative-elect Pantaleon Alvarez met in a hotel in Makati City Thursday to finalize the alliance of the two parties.

Alvarez, PDP-Laban secre- tary general, is the choice of his partymate president-elect Rodrigo Duterte to be the House speaker in the incoming 17th Congress.

“They agreed to form a coalition and the actual signing (of the agreement) will be in the coming days,” the source who was privy to the meeting told The STAR, referring to Belmote and Alvarez.

“The poaching of LP members to PDP-Laban will soon stop,” the lawmaker said.

When asked, Belmonte said: “We have agreed in principle and we’ll sign next week.”

Before the series of defections, LP had 117 members in the 290-member chamber.

Belmonte asked Alvarez to end the raiding of LP ranks during the meeting, but the latter said he could not help it as the PDP-Laban needs to reach a “comfortable” number of members before calling it quits.

The House leader also told Alvarez that PDP-Laban and other political parties are also poaching new members from the LP, whose influence as well as membership in the chamber is fast waning, the source said.

Apparently, Alvarez is holding off signing a coalition agreement with LP until he is able to achieve his target membership. Other sources said the PDP-Laban aims to have at least 100 members for it to be truly considered the ruling party. The PDP-Laban had only three members in the House after the May 9 elections.

Last Thursday, however, Alvarez said the party’s ranks have grown to about 60 members, with more from the LP and other parties expressing intention to join PDP-Laban.

Other parties – Nacionalista Party, Nationalist People’s Coalition, Lakas- CMD and National Unity Party – earlier signed their respective partnership pacts with PDP-Laban. The agreements meant the PDPLaban could not poach for new members from allied parties.

Earlier, some 50 LP lawmakers signed a manifesto in support of Alvarez’s speakership bid and the incoming Duterte administration.

Belmonte also previously asked Alvarez to accept the LP members supportive of him into the majority bloc without having to renounce their loyalty to the party.

However, Alvarez said LP lawmakers wanting to join the pro-administration bloc must renounce their loyalty to the party and join PDP-Laban.

He said it would be untenable for him to see LP members in the majority and some with the opposition bloc.