Updated July 29, 2018, 7:25 AM
By Ben Rosario

The gains made by former speaker Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez for the PDP-Laban will be preserved as his successor, former President and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pledged to remain a party member and help the president’s political party push for the administration’s legislative agenda.

Negros Occidental Rep. Albee Benitez, head of the powerful Visayan Bloc in the House of Representatives, said PDP-Laban should be expected to arrange for alliances with Hugpong ng Pagbabago and other regional political parties that share the same political principles with the administration party.

“I believe the next move for us is to pursue alliances with regional and local political parties, particularly Hugpong, that are supportive of the Duterte administration,” said Benitez.

Hugpong is a regional political party organized by presidential daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, who was reportedly instrumental in the leadership change in the Lower House.

Benitez assailed as “pure imagination” the claim of a senior administration lawmaker of an exodus from the PDP-Laban.

On the other hand, Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, a senior party member, called on the national leadership to appoint or push for the election of Arroyo to a key position “commensurate to her stature as House leader.”

But Castelo, chairman of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development, said Alvarez must continue serving as secretary general.

“We have to maintain party harmony and unity.Speaker Arroyo and former Speaker Alvarez will make a formidable north-south tandem that could make the PDP-Laban even more formidable,” said Castelo.

No jumping ship

Energy Secretary Al Cusi, party vice chairman, said appointing Arroyo to a national position in the party will still have to be deliberated on, apparently by the national executive council, and “ask her and the party leadership before arriving” at this decision.

Benitez, chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development, has been asked by PDP-Laban congressmen to help guarantee that the political party will not be adversely affected by the leadership change in the Lower House.

“The party’s contingent in the Lower Chamber is intact and remains strong. Everybody wants the Duterte presidency to succeed and there’s no better guarantee but to stick together as what Speaker Arroyo had wanted us to do,” said Benitez.

The senior administration lawmaker stressed that Arroyo has announced she will stay with PDP-Laban and lead the Lower House in the passage of the adminstration’s legislative agenda, including the bid for a shift to federalism.

Benitez also credited Alvarez for being instrumental in expanding the PDP-Laban’s membership base and transforming it into one of the strongest party in the country’s political history.

“We all agreed to preserve the gains that the former speaker has contributed to the party,” he said.

Benitez, who was asked by Speaker Arroyo to help speed up the transition in the change of House leadership, denied news reports he will lead fellow PDP-Laban congressmen in abandoning the party, saying that all members are fully aware that such move could lead to political suicide.

“It will be politically unwise to let go of PDP-Laban party as it has established a formidable network of leaders from the grassroots to the national level,” Benitez said.

Earlier, House Deputy Speaker Rolando Andaya claimed that disenchantment in the party leadership is expected to lead a number of PDP-Laban members in the Lower House to jump ship and raised the possibility that Lakas-CMD will be the new vehicle of resigning party members.

He added that Lakas-CMD, a political party once led by Arroyowill likely hold an alliance with Mayor Inday Sara’s Hugpong.