MANILA — The Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list said it will bank on the membership base of the Liberal Party and the so-called "Pink Magic" from the 2022 elections in the 2025 midterm polls.

LP Executive Vice President Erin Tañada told reporters on Friday they are looking to garner voters from areas in the country where they have members.

"We have 700 more or less candidates all over the country. We have more or less maybe 10,000 members. So, we look at it from the point of view, okay, in the votes where VP Leni [Robredo] was able to garner substantial numbers. These are areas where we may be able to get votes," he said.

Tañada pinpointed the Bicol region, where ML Party-list first nominee Leila De Lima —a lawyer and former senator — hails from among the areas where they have a good base.

"So Bicol area, although we admit that there is a homegrown party-list there, we feel that since Manay Leila is from [Camarines Sur], we will be able to get maybe quite a substantial number of votes in Camsur," he said.

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Tañada said the party-list is also hoping to get votes from the 1st District of Albay, where the late Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman — until recently LP's party president — is from, and where his daughter Tabaco City Mayor Krisel Lagman-Luistro is running to be district representative.

"We have a candidate in Negros Oriental. We believe that we will be able to get also votes there," he added.

Tañada said the goal is to also get some votes in areas like Quezon and Mountain Province, where the party has candidates.

De Lima meanwhile said winning the party-list race would not be easy because of the presence of regional party-lists.

"We identify the areas na pwede pa talaga kaming makapasok. And then siguro we can call it as one advantage for ML is because we are now the sectoral formation of LP. And LP has local candidates. So we can say that there are areas which we can consider as our bailiwicks because there is a strong LP presence, strong LP candidates in certain areas," she said.

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Tañada said riding on the "Pink Magic" or the spirit of volunteerism during the 2022 presidential campaign of former Vice President Leni Robredo adds to their party-list bid.

"We feel that the pink areas would be considered soft areas where we can accumulate more votes...with 16 million votes all over, I think there's enough for the party-list groups that supported VP Leni to get votes from the same," he added.

REBUILDING THE LIBERAL PARTY

De Lima, who is also LP spokesperson, said it is about time to rebuild the political party's brand and its membership after being "decimated" during the Duterte administration.

"Kasi nga, ang mga tawag sa amin nun, ang tawag sa LP, mga elitista. So we would want to undo or reverse...that false narrative about LP. Na talagang we want really to reach out to the marginalized sectors and work for their advancement, yung kanilang mga interests," De Lima added.

(You see, we were called elitists, so we would want to undo or reverse that false narrative about LP and we really want to reach out to the marginalized sectors and work for their advancement, for their interests)

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Tañada said the LP fielding a party-list in the midterm polls was not a strategy but part of opening the party to differents sectors in response to "turncoatism politics", where politicians jump ship or change parties after elections.

"The Liberal Party was not exempt from that. So looking forward, the leadership of the party then decided, let's already open the membership to the different sectors of society. So that even if we lose future elections, the Liberal Party will have a base coming from the different sectoral formations," he said. 

Tañada noted the "abuse" in the party-list system as another reason they decided to push for the accreditation of ML Party-list.

"The right for giving the sectors a voice has disappeared. We felt that since we opened the party to the sectoral formations, we also can be the voice of the marginalized sectors," the former lawmaker said.

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ML Party-list was accredited by the Commission on Elections in July 2024 and has tapped De Lima, Tañada and former Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat as its nominees.

Among the group's priority legislations include a "Philippine first policy" for small businesses, reviewing the rice tariffication law, minimum suggested buying rice for palay and a review of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, which was supposed to lower power rates.