Political party in the Philippines
The Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP; lit. 'Fight of Democratic Filipinos') is a liberal political party in the Philippines.
There are no results available for the 2004 election for the House of Representatives, but according to the website of the House, the party held 7 out of 235 seats. The party is divided into two factions. The faction led by Edgardo Angara contested in the 2004 elections as a member party of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (Coalition of United Filipinos).
In the May 14, 2007 national elections, the party won 3 seats in the House of Representatives.[2]
History
In the mid-1980s, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino, Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN) and Lakas ng Bansa parties became members of the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO) coalition that supported the candidacy of Corazon C. Aquino and Salvador H. Laurel for president and vice president, respectively in the February 7, 1986 snap election.[3] By early 1986, PDP had merged with LABAN, founded in 1978 by the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., to form the PDP–Laban.[3]
In the 1987 legislative elections, UNIDO, under the name "Lakas ng Bayan", became the dominant party in both houses of Congress, electing Representative Ramon V. Mitra, Jr. of Palawan as Speaker of the House of Representatives. UNIDO would be dissolved soon after.
In September 1988, PDP–Laban was split into two factions: the Pimentel Wing of Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. and the Cojuangco Wing of Jose "Peping" S. Cojuangco, Jr. The Cojuangco Wing and the Lakas ng Bansa party of Speaker Mitra merged on September 16, 1988 to form the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino party, while the Pimentel Wing remained as the PDP–Laban party. In the November 1991 LDP National Convention, the party nominated Speaker Mitra as its nominee for President of the Philippines, while runner-up former National Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos bolted the party and formed Partido Lakas ng Tao, and won the presidency in the May 11, 1992 presidential election.
In 1994, LDP formed a major coalition with Lakas–NUCD of President Ramos (dubbed as the "Lakas-Laban Coalition") for the May 1995 midterm legislative elections, winning a majority of all seats in both houses of Congress.
In 1997, the party supported the candidacy of then-Vice President Joseph Estrada for the presidency, coalesced with two other parties to form the Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino (lit. 'Fight of the Patriotic Filipino Masses').
Recent events
In the 2004 elections, the party was critically divided by two factions between its party president Senator Edgardo Angara, who supported the candidacy of party outsider actor Fernando Poe Jr., and party secretary general Makati representative Agapito Aquino, who supported Senator Panfilo Lacson's candidacy for president.
It was planned that the LDP would form the core of the main opposition coalition, the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP). However, members of the party disagreed on which person to support for president. Panfilo Lacson, a member of the party, advanced his candidacy for president but was not considered by Edgardo Angara, the president of the party. Angara supported Fernando Poe, Jr. Together with the party's secretary-general Agapito "Butz" Aquino, Lacson gathered the support of some members of the party and went ahead with his candidacy. The LDP was subsequently polarized between those supporting Angara and Poe, and those for Lacson and Aquino.
By then, Poe and Lacson have both filed their certificates of candidacies. According to the rules of candidacy, every presidential candidate must have a political party to back him or her. With the obvious split within the ranks of the LDP, and with no signs that the two factions would come to an agreement, the COMELEC decided to informally split the party into the Aquino and the Angara wings. Lacson then ran under the LDP – Aquino Wing, and Poe under the LDP – Angara Wing, which would later become the KNP.
During the campaign period, there had been numerous unification talks between the two factions. The opposition saw the need to become united under one banner to boost their chances of winning the presidential election against the organized political machinery of Arroyo. The plans of unification did not materialize due to the stubbornness of both Poe and Lacson. Lacson wanted Poe to concede to him and run as his vice-presidential candidate while the supporters of Poe wanted Lacson to back-out from his candidacy and instead support Poe, citing his low performance in the surveys.
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