The proposed coalition between the Liberal Party (LP) and the incoming ruling PDP-Laban may not materialize, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday.

Belmonte said he could not accept the plan of the group of Davao del Norte representative-elect Pantaleon Alvarez to reduce the LP membership that would coalesce with PDP-Laban to just 20.

Rodrigo Duterte won the Philippine presidency in a blaze of hard-line rhetoric -- an outsider who will stamp out crime and corruption. But his power base is tied to the nation's oldest political camps, including that of ex-dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

A shift to a federal system of government will help empower local government units and give them access to a bigger budget, former senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. told Radyo Inquirer 990AM on Monday.

The founder of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) said federalism would give more power to local units.

A high level delegation of PDP Laban leaders were sent by their President, Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III to Davao City to meet with the Centrist Democratic Party (CDP) and the Centrist Democracy Political Institute (CDPI) Chairman Lito Lorenzana to explore the resumption of the coalition talks which was discontinued in the later part of 2015. To recall, the then Chairman of the PDP-Laban, and former South Cotabato Governor Mike Sueno, who lead the coalition talks gave way to the party chairmanship to now President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.

The delegation was headed by Vice-Chairman Alfonso Cusi, Treasurer Atty Clint Aranas, Deputy Secretary General for Mindanao Benito Ranque, Vice President for NCR Engr. Salvador Ty and Abbin Dalhani, President for NCR.