House of Representatives Majority Leader Martin Romualdez on Wednesday said the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) will fully support for the presidential and vice presidential candidates to be chosen by the party Hugpong ng Pagbabago of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte- Carpio.
Duterte-Carpio’s HNP is set to form a super coalition with other political parties in preparation for the national and local elections in 2022.
“As far as Lakas-CMD is concerned, we support the choice of HNP for the coalition’s presidential and vice presidential candidates. It’s a non-issue to us,” Romualdez, Lakas-CMD president and representative of Leyte’s first district, said.
“I don’t want to preempt Mayor Sara Duterte’s prerogative and HNP. Our alliance with HNP is what has been renewed. We will take it one at a time.”
“In the case of vice presidency again, we also pledged to work with HNP in the determination of their choice,” added Romualdez, a lawyer from University of the Philippines (UP) and president of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa).
Earlier, former Davao del Norte Gov. Anthony del Rosario said that parties that will enter into a coalition with HNP would have to agree that the regional party will choose its presidential and vice presidential candidates for next year’s polls.
The Lakas-CMD’s executive committee reached a consensus last month to renew its alliance with HNP.
“The party also decided to renew its alliance on issues of good governance, national unity, and continued reforms for economic recovery, including the sustained campaign to defeat the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic,” Romualdez said.
“We seek stronger cooperation in ensuring the preservation of the country’s democratic processes to further pursue a strong nation, including the conduct of peaceful and orderly elections in the service of the Filipino people,” he added.
Lakas-CMD had produced two chief executives, namely former Presidents Fidel Ramos and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who also previously served as Speaker during the previous 17th Congress. Arroyo is the president emeritus of the Lakas-CMD.
The two political parties, along with Tingog party-list led by Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez, had forged an alliance for the 2019 midterm election.
“We have had no problems working together since the last election when we forged in November 2018 our alliance because all of us here are championing the ideals and principles of good governance and effective public service,” Romualdez said.
“Our main objective is to help each other perform our duties and responsibilities and we believe that the people deserve a track record of performance from their elected leaders,” Romualdez added.