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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Friday. September 22, 2017
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ILOILO – Fifth District congressman Raul Tupas is not in a hurry to join President Rodrigo Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).
The Nacionalista Party, of which he is a member, is already an ally of PDP-Laban in the Lower House’s “supermajority”, he explained.
It was House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, PDP-Laban secretary general, who invited Tupas to join the ruling party.
The congressman said he won’t make a decision without first consulting his constituents.
Tupas also confirmed having talked to Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. who will soon be taking his oath as new PDP-Laban member.
The governor’s son and namesake is also joining the President’s party.
“I hold the governor in high esteem and I support his programs and projects,” said Tupas who was Defensor’s vice governor for three years from 2013 to 2016.
In the 2010 elections, Defensor defeated Tupas in the gubernatorial race.
A member of the Liberal Party since 2013, the governor confessed to being uneasy changing political parties.
“I am not used to shifting from one party to other. But I have been sent several emissaries asking me to transfer. And it made me thought, too, of the support, of the big-ticket programs that the national government could extend to Iloilo province and its municipalities,” said Defensor.
The governor also cited “practical politics” in deciding to leave Liberal Party.
“I’d be a hypocrite if I say my decision has nothing to do with politics. I told PDP-Laban my son is interested to become governor. I made the message clear but up to that point lang,” said Defensor./PN
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