History
The Party was founded in 1991 after some members of the Nacionalista Party led by then Rizal Governor Isidro Rodriguez bolted from the Nacionalista Party after some disagreements with Nacionalista party leader then Vice President Salvador Laurel in preparation for the 1992 Presidential elections. Members of the civil society including the business sector who called themselves as "Friends of Danding" invited business tycoon Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco to run as President and Senator Joseph Estrada as Vice President. Cojuangco lost the Presidential race, finishing third while Estrada taking away the Vice Presidency by landslide.
NPC was a member of the Estrada-era Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino or LAMMP, the political vehicle of then Vice President Joseph Estrada in the 1998 Presidential elections. Both the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, Partido ng Masang Pilipino and NPC were members of LAMMP.
NPC bolted the now-defunct LAMMP after Estrada was ousted by a military-backed civilian uprising in January 2001. When Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the Presidency, her "People Power Coalition," led by the Lakas-CMD party, became the dominant group in Congress. The 75-member Lakas party led the "Sunshine Coalition," which also included the 61-member Nationalist People’s Coalition, some members of the Liberal Party, and several other minor parties. The LDP party led the 20-member opposition bloc.
In 2004, the LDP and NPC sought a reunification to push the presidential bid of businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco. Cojuangco, the NPC chair, was fielded as NPC's standard bearer in the 2004 elections, but withdrew.
Results for the 2004 elections show that NPC had 0 seats for the Senate while for the House of Representatives, NPC had 53 seats.
In the 13th Congress of the Philippines, the ruling Lakas-CMD party led by Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. renewed its partnership with the Nationalist People's Coalition even as an alternative coalition of administration-affiliated parties was shaping up.
In Background Note: Philippines, under Government and Political Relations, the U.S. Department of State writes: "Members of the Congress tend to have weak party loyalties and change party affiliation easily. There is no clear majority in the Senate, which changed its President in 2006."
Read more about this topic: Nationalist People's Coalition
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