DAVAO CITY — The Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) is forging an alliance with six local political leaders, who want to be part of the regional party formed by Mayor Sara Z. Duterte and four Davao governors.
Among those that will forge an alliance on August 13 in a meeting in Manila are the groups of Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. of Bohol, the Pineda’s of Pampanga, Quezon City Vice Mayor Josefina “Joy” Belmonte, Vicente Emano of Misamis Oriental and Frederick Jalosjos of the first district of Zamboanga del Norte.
Mayor Sara, Governors Anthony Del Rosario of Davao Del Norte, Claude Bautista of Davao Occidental, Jayvee Tyron Uy of Compostela Valley and Nelson Dayanghirang of Davao Oriental will formally accept the local leaders and their local political groups on said date.
While the HNP is a newly-registered regional political party, it has already consolidated majority of local officials in the Davao region.
On Monday, August 6, local officials and supporters of Davao Occidental and Davao del Sur will join HNP in separate ceremonies in Malita and Digos City.
In a press conference on Friday, Mayor Sara reiterated that national parties cannot transfer to HNP because it is a regional party.
She, however, said HNP can forge alliance with other parties. She made this clarification following reports that most members of the PDP-Laban transferred to HNP.
Mayor Sara said she and the governors just wanted to create a strong Davao Region, adding that there were also no talks with national parties, only local organizations.
“We did not foresee this growing interest of other politicians from other regions,” she said.
“HNP does not also intend to make (it) a national political party.”
Of the HNP stalwarts, only Mayor Sara has no national party. Governors Del Rosario and Uy already resigned from the Liberal Party and PDP Laban, respectively.
Dayanghirang remains a member of the Liberal Party and Bautista is a Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) member.
“Even the other officers are not keen on deciding on this. But we are set to create alliances with other groups to help each other,” the mayor added. “If they will run for any public office, the HNP leaders would banner HNP”. (Lilian Mellejor/PNA)
