Nationalist People's Coalition

The NPC was founded in 1992 after members of the Nacionalista Party, led by Rizal governor Isidro Rodriguez, left the party after disagreements with party leader and vice president Salvador Laurel before the 1992 presidential elections. Members of civil society (including the business sector) who called themselves "Friends of Danding" invited tycoon Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco, a former associate of Ferdinand Marcos,^[7] to run as president with Senator Joseph Estrada as vice president. Cojuangco lost the presidential race, finishing third, and Estrada won the vice presidency in a landslide.^[10]

The NPC was a member of the Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino (LAMMP), the political vehicle of vice president Joseph Estrada in the 1998 presidential elections.^[11] It left the LAMMP after Estrada was removed from power in January 2001.^[11] When Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed the presidency, her People Power Coalition (led by the Lakas–CMD party) became the dominant group in Congress.^[12] The 75-member Lakas party led the "Sunshine Coalition," which included the 61-member NPC, members of the Liberal Party, and several other minor parties.^[12] The Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) party led the 20-member opposition bloc.^[12]

In 2004, the LDP and NPC backed businessman Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco as a potential presidential candidate in that year's elections.^[11] Cojuangco, the NPC chair, withdrew from the campaign. Although the NPC had no seats in the Senate, the party had 53 seats in the House of Representatives after the election.^[13] The United States Department of State said in its October 2006 Background Note: Philippines, "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."^{[12][failed verification]}

The NPC fielded a 12-person Senatorial slate in the 1995 elections as an opposition party to the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos. They ran against the administration-backed Lakas–Laban Coalition.

In the 2007 elections, the party won 26 seats:

Loren Legarda – Vice-presidential candidate from the Nacionalista Party and LDP (lost)

Senate:

• Miriam Defensor Santiago (under the PRP and guest candidateofLakas Kampi CMD, LDP, Nacionalista Party and PMP) (won)
• Rodolfo Plaza (guest candidate from Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino) (lost)
• Tito Sotto (won)

Senate:

• Loren Legarda – guest candidate from Liberal Party (Philippines)/Team PNoy (won)
• Jack Enrile – guest candidate from Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino/United Nationalist Alliance (lost)
• Edward Hagedorn – independent (lost)

• President: Grace Poe (lost)
• Vice President: Francis Escudero (lost)

Senate:

• Win Gatchalian (won)
• Tito Sotto (won)

Senate:

• Jinggoy Estrada (guest candidate, lost)
• JV Ejercito (lost)
• Lito Lapid (won)
• Imee Marcos (guest candidate, won)
• Grace Poe (guest candidate, won)
• Bong Revilla (guest candidate, won)

Vice President: Tito Sotto

Senate:

• Herbert Bautista (lost)
• Win Gatchalian (won)
• Loren Legarda (won)
• Francis Escudero (won)
• JV Ejercito (won)

• Tito Sotto
• Win Gatchalian
• Lito Lapid

• Claudine Diana Bautista (Dumper PTDA)
• Conrado Estrella III (ABONO)
• Florencio Noel (An Waray)

• Official website
• Nationalist People's CoalitiononFacebook