‘Danding irreplaceable as NPC head’

MANILA, Philippines — Nationalist People’s Coalition founding chair Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. is irreplaceable, and the NPC will struggle to maintain its strength after his death, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said yesterday.

Sotto, a ranking official of NPC, said party members, including Senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Lito Lapid, some of the old stalwarts and at least 32 representatives in the House, will meet to discuss the future of the party.

“Boss Danding is irreplaceable. We will obviously struggle to keep our party strong and steady because of the loss of our chairman emeritus,” Sotto said.

Cojuangco, a tycoon who wielded influence in politics, business and sports, died earlier this week.

Gatchalian echoed Sotto’s statement and admitted that finding Cojuangco’s successor would be very difficult.

“The late chairman emeritus is a very strong figure inside the party. The NPC is a very unique party, if you look at other parties, whoever is in power, his party gets more members but NPC maintains its numbers whoever is in power. The members are loyal to the party and also to Boss Danding,” Gatchalian said.

“Over the years, he had a lot of experiences so the members respect his views and wisdom,” Gatchalian said, adding that based on NPC’s tradition, decisions are made by a Council of Elders.

Gatchalian said although Danding did not run the day-to-day activities of the party anymore, he had vast influence.

“To be fair to him, even if he was already sick, he did not miss a single event of the party to interact. That’s how he loved the party and his partymates,” he added.

He said Cojuangco had designed the party to be a stand-alone party with an NPC creed.

“Definitely 2022 election is just around the corner, parties are normally courted during those times, one of the biggest decisions is who to chose for elections,” he said, stressing the party will still have a stand.