WHEN presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio formally launched last February what was then described as a regional party mainly based in the Davao region, called the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), then Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimental III, who also heads the administration Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), did not discount the possibility of PDP-Laban bets clashing with HNP candidates in that region in 2019.
The Davao area was the turf of PDP-Laban secretary-general and former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez until the younger Duterte made her move. When the party was launched, the governors of Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Davao Occidental and Compostela Valley were present. Only the Davao del Sur governor was absent. Alvarez represents the 1st District of Davao del Norte in the House.
The rift between Sara and Alvarez can be traced to this political initiative by the former. Alvarez’s reaction, as alleged by Sara, was to consider HNP as an opposition group apparently to differentiate it from his own PDP-Laban. A mini-verbal war waged mainly by Sara (Alvarez mainly kept silent apparently worried over how the president would react if he didn’t) erupted.
What we saw hours before the president delivered his State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday was the culmination of that rift. It was an open secret that Sara was behind the move to unseat Alvarez as House speaker and replace him with former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. That he succeeded showed Duterte-Carpio’s clout even within the PDP-Laban House stalwarts.
Which should worry Pimentel. Because while the HNP is portrayed as a regional party, Sara already made known her intention for HNP to forge alliances with other parties in the country. Which could eventually lead to a collision with PDP-Laban. In February, Pimentel had expressed the hope that HNP, as a regional party, would eventually align itself with the PDP-Laban. That may not happen for two reasons.
One is because of Sara’s political intention. While she has denied angling for a national post, she ranks high in surveys for the senatorial polls. If she does run for senator, she may be wary of using the PDP-Laban as a platform considering that Alvarez is there. She may use the HNP instead for that purpose.
The other reason is the manner her father got elected as president. He didn’t have a national party and merely rode on the PDP-Laban, which was founded by former senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Koko’s father. If Sara eventually runs for president in 2022 (the fanatical diehard Duterte supporters or DDS are already pushing for it), she may no longer do so under the PDP-Laban but use the HNP instead.
In my previous column, I wrote about how cracks are beginning to show in the Duterte camp. The other manifestation of that is this one: two parties vying for the tag of being the official administration party. In the end though, it may not be difficult to see which between the PDP-Laban and HNP will eventually be lost in the passing.
In a way, the 2019 elections could become the first battleground between PDP-Laban and the HNP. Whether that is good or bad for President Duterte, I don’t know.