THE Nationalist People’s Coalition, the nation’s second largest political party, will announce its presidential bet “just before the official start of the campaign period,” an official said Monday night.
Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga, the party’s spokesman, made the statement as its top members finally “met” with Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who filed his Certificate of Candidacy “very late.”
“We were anticipating early on that Mayor Duterte would declare his own presidential bid, that’s why the decision making-process is taking too long,” Enverga told reporters.
“The flow was good, we are thanking Mayor Rody Duterte for accepting our invitation. It was a very dynamic discussion.”
Enverga said Duterte discussed improving the peace-and-order situation in the country if he was elected president, with his platform anchored on battling drugs, crime and corruption.
Duterte also discussed changing the protective economic provisions in the constitution.
He described his meeting with NPC stalwarts as “jovial and sometimes serious.” He added that he arrived at the meeting with almost no expectations.
“I was not really expecting anything—an endorsement being adopted as a presidential candidate. It’s really their call, not mine,” Duterte said.
He earlier admitted that he needed more campaign money for the presidency.
The NPC had earlier met with administration standard bearer Manuel Roxas II, Vice President Jejomar Binay and Senator Grace Poe, who is the top choice of many NPC members despite the string of disqualification cases thrown against her.
Enverga said the NPC’s 15-member executive committee was in-charge of picking the presidential candidate they would be supporting in this year’s elections.
He said despite Poe’s legal hurdles before the Supreme Court, many of the party’s members were still “considering Senator Poe to be a choice, a top choice really.”
But another highly placed source in the NPC said that while they were still considering to “coalesce” with the ruling Liberal Party to support the candidacy of its standard bearer Manuel Roxas II, the chances were very unlikely.
Senator Vicente Sotto III had earlier said the party would “very likely” throw its support behind Poe because it would no longer be a “second-class citizen” in an alliance with other political parties.
“Because Grace is an independent candidate, it’s very inviting for the NPC to support her because we will be the lead political party,” Sotto said.
“You must remember that other members think that if we support the candidate of another political party, we might become second-class citizens to any other political party.”
Enverga said “king-maker” Danding Cojuangco, the party’s chairman emeritus, would not participate much in the decision-making as far as the presidency was concerned.
His son, Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, is lobbying for the NPC members to support the candidacy of Vice President Jejomar Binay.
