The most telling signal that President Rodrigo Duterte is strongly for the term-sharing of the House speakership was not when he ordered outgoing Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano to give way to his supposed successor, Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, when they met in Malacañang on Tuesday.
It was when the Chief Executive abruptly dismissed
Cayetano’s offer to present the manifesto of support signed by more than 200
lawmakers that was considered as the loudest statement made by the President without
uttering a word.
“That was the bomb,” a Daily Tribune source — also a lawmaker — disclosed.
“The President did not even accept nor read the manifesto when the Speaker’s group tried to present it to him on that fateful Tuesday,” he added. “The President was clear, he wants the term-sharing deal honored. He said it himself, in the presence of the congressmen and Senator (Christopher Lawrence) Bong Go.”
Another independent source told Daily Tribune that the Cayetano camp had assigned Bulacan Rep. Jonathan Sy-Alvarado to hand over the manifesto to the President.
Sy-Alvarado, however, was said to have committed a very serious blunder when he addressed the President as ‘tol (a colloquial for brother), for which he was quickly shunned by Mr. Duterte, who was said to be all business on that night.
“If Speaker Cayetano knows how to read the President’s body
language, he should have known it right then and there,” the same source
reiterated.
The President was always clear in his statements that he wants the term-sharing deal to be honored by both camps.
Cayetano’s camp, the same source claimed, even tried to submit the manifesto to Senator Go, the President’s former Special Assistant. The lawmaker refused to take the document, however, and had it passed on to a staff.
The Speaker gathered those signatures the weekend before he and Velasco met the President at the Palace. It was also during that stretch when he released funds to all political and bloc leaders.
The Chief Executive tried to resolve the ongoing dispute between Cayetano and Velasco by calling them to a meeting along with 18 other lawmakers, including Lani Cayetano, the Speaker’s wife with whom he halved Taguig City’s two congressional districts.
But while they agreed to have Velasco take over the
speakership on 14 October, the President instructed Cayetano to make the
announcement last Wednesday.
Cayetano, however, faced the plenary to attack Velasco and offer his resignation that was quickly rejected by his peers.
The Speaker then went back to the Palace, hitching on the scheduled meeting between the President and evangelist Eddie Villanueva.
Villanueva was only supposed to “pray over” the President, but Cayetano tagged along his family, including his wife Lani and sister Pia, a senator.
After the “pray over” the Senator was said to have appealed to the President to disregard the Velasco-Cayetano pact.
It was also said that he promised more funds for the Duterte government should the President allow him to retain the speakership.
“He turned his back — again — on the agreement and the President’s word,” Buhay Partylist Rep. Lito Atienza, a former Manila mayor, said.
“I cannot take that insincere and treacherous political maneuvering,” Atienza said. “That I can see through. What he had was a vote of confidence to show the President that he has the number.”
In that count, 184 House members voted to reject Cayetano’s resignation.
“But those numbers are not important to the President,” the Tribune source said. “He did not even give importance to the manifesto that has more signatories than Tuesday’s votes.”
Negros Oriental Rep. Arnie Teves also called that session as “invalid” as they were not given the chance to speak, more so raise a point of order.
“The speaker only used that session to malign Cong. Velasco,” Atienza said. “I’m happy somehow that he has finally gotten tired of being pilloried, maligned and insulted by these nincompoops.”
On Friday night, Velasco addressed his constituents using his social media account to finally break his silence on the issue.
He said:
“With the last months, the attacks have escalated to malign and paint me as power-hungry and evil. But in spite of these, I have kept quiet as a true gentleman, statesman and in respect for the President.”
“This is my time to correct all these to lies and misinformation which are all meant to undermine the term-sharing agreement,” he said.
Velasco accused Cayetano of turning his back on the agreement that culminated in “his drama” before the House on Tuesday.
He questioned Cayetano’s word of honor, which he said he deeply considers.
“Speaker Cayetano shamelessly and unabashedly resorted to attacking me and spreading lies,” he said. “One of these many lies they were spreading is that I was inactive and that I am lazy. This is complete falsehood.”
“I have always worked quietly and consistently away from the camera,” he stated.
He also denied plotting to oust Cayetano, saying it defies reason as there was an agreement.
“It’s a cheap shot,” Velasco said.
The presumptive Speaker also lashed out at Cayetano’s clique for muddling the issue of the inequity in the distribution of budget, which several lawmakers protested two weeks ago. That was when Cayetano again raised the “coup” accusation against Velasco.
This article first appeared on Daily Tribune
