FORMER PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Saturday night said she and former Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” G. Robredo talked about local politics during a gathering with their friends.
“I recently had a social dinner with former Vice President Leni Robredo and mutual friends from Bicol… we chatted about Bicol politics,” Ms. Arroyo, now a Pampanga lawmaker said in a statement, further fueling speculations that fault lines have emerged within the ruling coalition.
Back in May, Ms. Arroyo, a known power broker in Philippine politics, denied she was hatching a plot to oust House Speaker Martin G. Romualdez, a cousin of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. She has since been replaced by Rep. Aurelio Gonzales, Jr. as senior deputy speaker.
Ms. Arroyo, who was a key backer of the political alliance between Mr. Marcos and then vice-presidential candidate Sara Duterte-Carpio during the 2022 campaign, remains the president emeritus of the Lakas-CMD party, in which Mr. Romualdez is the president.
Lakas-CMD, which was among the four political parties that formed the UniTeam alliance of Mr. Marcos and Ms. Carpio last year, is the biggest political party in the House of Representatives. Mr. Marcos’ Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, meanwhile, has remained irrelevant in Congress.
“We didn’t really see Partido Federal, the nominal party of President Marcos Jr., grow to an unusually big size this season,” Cleve V. Arguelles, president of WR Numero Research, said in an analysis earlier this year.
Most politicians have just maintained their affiliations and loyalty with Lakas-CMD and President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s PDP-Laban, he said.
The trend was interesting because it “deviates from the expectation that politicians usually jump ship to the administration party which also usually gives Malacañang a clear advantage in a midterm election,” Mr. Arguelles noted.
“It’s looking like this will not be the story of 2025,” he said.
The Partido Federal, which was created by supporters of Mr. Duterte in 2018, held an induction ceremony for new members last month, including 14 provincial chiefs. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
