LAKAS–CHRISTIAN Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) Chairman and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio returned to Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) to resume her duties as chairman of the party, after a week since she resigned from the party.
This was confirmed by HNP Secretary General Anthony Del Rosario in a text message to SunStar Davao on Friday evening, November 19.
In a forwarded statement, Duterte-Carpio took her oath as the party's chairperson on the same day.
Duterte-Carpio would still be Lakas-CMD’s chairperson.
HNP said the mayor's reappointment as chairperson became possible as both parties’ constitutions and by-Laws do not prohibit membership and appointment as officer, since HNP is a regional political party.
Duterte-Carpio filed her resignation from HNP on November 11. Hours after her resignation from the regional party, she was sworn as an official member of the national party Lakas-CMD.
Two days after, she filed her certificate of candidacy as a vice-presidential aspirant in the 2022 elections.
"Mayor Sara’s role as concurrent Chairperson of both HNP and Lakas-CMD will further strengthen the alliance between the two parties. An alliance that will promote a strong people-centered development throughout Davao Region and the Philippines," HNP said in a statement.
The mayor officially succeeded Senator Bong Revilla as Lakas-CMD's chairperson on Thursday, November 18.
"We are very grateful for the enormous trust and opportunity afforded by Lakas-CMD to Mayor Sara, whom we describe as one of the country’s best political women leaders of her time," HNP said.
Duterte-Carpio, in a forwarded text message from her Spokesperson Liloan, Cebu Mayor Christina Frasco, said she is happy to return to the party that she co-founded in 2018.
"I am happy to be home and back into the fold of our beloved Hugpong ng Pagbabago as its Chairperson. The HNP Chairmanship I now hold concurrently with the Chairmanship of Lakas-CMD with the permission of Lakas," the mayor said.
She also called on her HNP colleagues "to forge on and build the strongest region we can ever be, in devoted service to the Filipino people."
Both the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas and the People's Reform Party adopted Duterte-Carpio as their standard-bearer for the vice presidency.