A professor from the University of the Philippines on Saturday said that the opposition, including Liberal Party, may consider joining administration’s senatorial slate in 2025 should its members find “points of unity” with the newly announced Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas.
Dr. Edna Co, a former dean at the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance, said politics in the Philippines is about formation of alliances and coalitions.
“Politics, generally, is not about drawing lines, but of coalitions of alliances of parties and other potential political players to increase chances of winning,” she said, adding that political parties in the Philippines do not operate in the same way that parties do in other countries.
Co said that while there are many political parties in the country, they are not distinct parties “in substance” and are more similar to each other than they are different.
“They are looking for ways to merge and unite. The goal is ‘how do we win?’ but they are not a political party in substance — it’s all very fluid,” she said.
Co stressed that the LP, which used to be a ruling party, may find several points of unity with the Marcos administration, including on foreign policy.
She said that the LP and the Marcos administration have agreed on issues like sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea.
“Going to other countries for cooperation, that’s a very Liberal agenda. In fact, the administration has extended its hand to explore broader unity with other countries,” she said, adding that it is in contrast to the Duterte administration’s focus on bilateral talks with China on a dispute that affects the region.
She added: “I believe the way has been opened for the alliance.” This, Co said, referring to LP’s prospects for election victory and could help the administration coalition field a full 12-person slate for the senatorial elections.
“The LP has to assess what issues that the UniTeam is carrying that are also in the liberal agenda,” she said.
Co added that Filipino voters are aware of the fluid nature of parties and coalitions in the Philippines, and that “the deeper issue that they look at is who will carry their agenda” after the elections. She said that this makes it important for parties to make their proposed policies and solutions clearer to the public.
“Each political party should say where they stand on complicated political issues like poverty and economic issues,” she added.
Lawmakers belonging to the newly-formed Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas have maintained they expect more political groups to join the new administration alliance led by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his principally Congress ally, Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez.
Deputy Majority Leader and Isabela Rep. Faustino Dy V and Assistant Majority Leader and Manila Rep. Ernesto Dionisio Jr. earlier said they are looking forward to having more Alyansa members from other political parties.
The two congressmen are affiliated with Lakas-CMD, which is headed by Speaker Romualdez and which forged the Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas with President Marcos’ Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) on Wednesday.