Duterte on remaining with PDP-Laban: I don't like to change parties

President Rodrigo Duterte said Friday he is staying with ruling party PDP-Laban that is currently embroiled in a leadership squabble.

"I do not like to change parties. So I will remain where I am," Duterte said in a speech during the convention of regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago in Davao City.

Duterte said he joined PDP-Laban, which he described as a "moribund" party before he was voted into office in 2016, because of its socialist principle.

"May pagka-leftist ako eh, ‘yung ang leanings ko kaya doon ako," he said.

The President's remarks came a week after he met with warring factions of PDP-Laban and told them to unite and prepare for the 2019 midterm elections.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, the party president, and former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, secretary general, head one PDP-Laban faction while the other was headed by lawyer Rogelio Garcia, a long-time party member and a classmate of Duterte's.

Garcia's faction, which gathered in Quezon City recently in an apparent show of force, has questioned the mass oath-takings of new party members by Pimentel's faction because the new recruits supposedly did not undergo basic membership seminar.

Duterte's attendance at the HNP convention had raised speculation that he might join the party founded this year by his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.

HNP secretary general and Davao del Norte Governor Anthony del Rosario said members of national parties like PDP-Laban are allowed to join them.

The bylaws of HNP, however, require its members to be registered voters of Davao region. The President is a registered voter of Davao City.

“But if you want me to campaign for you [HNP members], I will. Walang problema ‘yan. Let’s have just a coalition,” Duterte said. —JST, GMA News