The Liberal Party was the political party of the immediate past Vice President of the Philippines. In the 2019 midterm elections, the party remained the primary opposition party of the Philippines, holding three seats in the Senate. The LP was the largest party outside of Rodrigo Duterte's supermajority, holding 18 seats in the House of Representatives after 2019. In local government, the party held two provincial governorships and five vice governorships. The general election of 2022, however, was a setback for the party, which lost both the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, as well as all of its seats in the Senate, and saw its representation in the House of Representatives reduced.
After democracy was restored after the People Power Revolution, the LP was instrumental in ending more than half a century of US military presence in the Philippines with its campaign in the 1991 senate to reject a new RP-US Bases Treaty. This ironically cost the party dearly, losing for it the elections of 1992. In 2000, it was in opposition to the Joseph Estrada administration, actively supporting the Resign-Impeach-Oust initiatives that led to People Power II.[2][16]
On March 2, members of the LP installed Manila MayorLito Atienza as the party president, which triggered an LP leadership struggle and party schism. The Supreme Court later proclaimed Drilon the true president of the party, leaving the Atienza wing expelled.[16][2]
The Benigno Aquino III administrationedit
The Liberal Party regained influence when it nominated as its next presidential candidate then-Senator Benigno Aquino III,[16] the son of former President Corazon Aquino, for the 2010 Philippine presidential election after the latter's death that subsequently showed a groundswell of support for his candidacy.[17] Even though the party had earlier nominated Sen. Manuel "Mar" Roxas II to be its presidential candidate for the 2010 Philippine general election, Roxas gave way to Aquino and instead ran for vice president. The party was able to field new members breaking away from the then-ruling party Lakas–Kampi–CMD, becoming the largest minority party in Congress.[2][16][18] Aquino would later win by plurality, and the LP would become the majority party in Congress.[19]
2016–presentedit
In the 2016 presidential elections, the Liberal Party nominated Mar Roxas, former Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary, and Leni Robredo, a representative from Naga City and widow of Jesse Robredo, the DILG secretary who preceded Roxas, as the party's presidential and vice presidential candidates. Robredo won, while Roxas lost. Most of the party's members either switched allegiance to PDP–Laban,[20][21][22] joined a supermajority alliance but retained their LP membership (with some defecting later), joined the "recognized minority", or created an opposition bloc called "Magnificent 7".
As early as February 2017, the leaders of the Liberal Party chose to focus on rebuilding the party by inviting sectoral representation of non-politicians in its membership numbers.[23] Since then the party had been inducting new members who were non-politicians, some of whom applied online through the party's website, Liberal.ph.[24][25][26] Before the scheduled 2019 general elections, the LP formed Otso Diretso, an electoral coalition of eight candidates for the senate race; led by the party, the coalition field also comprised members of the Magdalo Party-List, Akbayan Citizens Action Party, and Aksyon Demokratiko.[27][28][29] None of the eight senatorial candidates under Otso Diretso won a seat, however; it was the first time in the history of the current bicameral composition of the Philippine Congress under the 1987 Constitution that the opposition failed to win a seat in one of the chambers, and the second time that a Liberal Party-led coalition suffered a great loss since 1955.
Since 2017, the party has opened party membership to the general public and to key sectors of society, aiming to harness a large volunteering base. According to the party, this aims to ostensibly build on "the promise of becoming a true people’s party".
Declare and address an "education crisis",[49] increase the education budget to 6% of GDP, streamline teachers' function,[50] and establish special education (SPED) centers in all public schools.[51]
Senator Leila de Lima, who led an investigation into alleged extrajudicial deaths in the early months of Duterte's war on drugs, was issued an arrest warrant in 2017 based on charges linked to the New Bilibid Prison drug trafficking scandal, which the party claimed was based on trumped-up charges, labelling the arrest "patently illegal".[66] While on the whole, de Lima's investigation was seen by some pundits as an adversarial investigation that was a strategic mistake, others in the party simply saw it as a call to a review of the party's principles and how members have adhered to them.[67][66][65][68][69]
In 2019, the party, along with other groups, was accused of planning a coup against the Duterte government. The party denounced the allegation and called it a state-sponsored threat of legal abuse, demanding the government provide evidence to back the claims.[70]
Manuel Roxas (5th President of the Philippines; one of the co-founders)
Elpidio Quirino (6th President of the Philippines) – also the 2nd Vice President of the Philippines
Ramon Magsaysay (7th President of the Philippines) – Magsaysay won in 1953 as the Candidate of the Nacionalista, although he was former Liberal member and in fact he served as President Quirino's Secretary of Department of National Defense.
Ferdinand Marcos Sr. (10th President of the Philippines) – Marcos won in 1965 as the candidate of the Liberal Party's rival Nacionalista Party, the party to which Marcos joined after failing to get the LP nomination.
Rodrigo Duterte (16th President of the Philippines) – A former party chair in Davao City from 2009, Duterte left the party in 2015. He won the presidency in 2016 under the PDP-Laban ticket.[76][77]
Philippine vice presidentsedit
Fernando Lopez (3rd and 7th vice president of the Philippines) – Lopez was a Liberal when he was the 3rd Vice President, while a Nacionalista member as the 7th Vice President
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