Two stalwarts of the House of Representatives believe that
Marinduque Representative Lord Alan Velasco now has the numbers to take over
the House leadership on 14 October whether or not Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano
steps down to honor their term-sharing deal.
Cayetano and his allies have turned off their colleagues
enough to withdraw their support as a result of the incumbent leader’s
theatrics and antics to frustrate the deal that President Rodrigo Duterte
wanted implemented.
The legislators believe that Mr. Duterte’s ignoring a
manifesto of support that the camp of Cayetano attempted to present in their
pursuit of junking the gentlemen’s agreement was the tipping point for many
legislators to abandon Cayetano.
Buhay Partylist Rep. Lito Atienza said support for Cayetano
is slipping away after clearly backtracking from the 15-21 deal brokered by
President Duterte and the recent move of his allies to dismiss Rep. Mikee
Romero as Deputy Speaker.
Romero is the president of the Party-list Coalition
Foundation Inc. (PCFI), one of the biggest political groups in the House of
Representatives composed of 52 partylist groups.
During the 29 September meeting in Malacañang, President
Rodrigo Duterte made himself clear to Cayetano to let Velasco, assume the
Speakership on the agreed date, PBA Partylist Rep. Jericho Nograles said.
“The ending of the meeting was: The President gave Speaker
Cayetano an assignment, which is to announce that the Chief Executive wanted
the 15-21 agreement to push through,” Nograles said on Sunday.
Aside from the 54 partylist congressmen, Atienza said he was
also quite sure the President’s political party, PDP-Laban, “will be in support
of Velasco.” There is a total of 65 House members belonging to the dominant
political party.
“I am sure the political chieftains will stick with the
President,” he added.
The National People’s Coalition, which has 35 members in the
House, is also backing Velasco as speaker.
Aside from Cayetano’s Nacionalista Party, the Speaker gets
support from the 43-member National Unity Party (NUP) headed by Cavite Rep.
Elpidio Barzaga.
Atienza’s computation gives Velasco 154 supporters which will be enough to win him the Speakership vote.
With such number, Velasco could theoretically have the
Speaker’s seat declared vacant on 14 October — the supposed date of the
turnover for the Speakership — and win the post if Cayetano reneges anew.
“All he (Velasco) has to do is call the smaller groups,”
noted Atienza.
Cayetano’s allies hold the 184 House members who voted to
reject Cayetano’s offer to resign last Wednesday as proof of support but
Atienza was one of them.
Atienza said he only did so because he reckoned the proper
time for the Speaker to resign was on 14 October.
Out of order
Nograles added that booting out Romero was not based on
House rules.
If the deputy speakership is declared vacant, Nograles said,
an election must have been held instead.
The seat was not declared vacant and Romero did not resign,
yet the motion to substitute him with Castro was accepted.
“There was no rule in Congress that there can be
substitution. The substitution of Rep. Fred Castro and Rep. Romero violated the
rules of the House of Representatives,” Nograles stressed.
He also noted that Cayetano’s offer of resignation is not
found in any rules of the House.
“Resignation from Congress is simple, it either is written
or declared publicly on the open floor,” he said.
Nograles added Anakalusugan Partylist Rep. Mike Defensor’s
motion to reject the Speaker’s offer was “technically out of order” yet no one
rejected it as everyone else was muted in the virtual meeting.
“I raised a point of order but they muted my microphone so
that I would not be heard. I posted an objection to those proceedings in our Viber
group. They can only claim that our technology is not 100 percent (working),”
he stated. Negros Oriental 3rd District Representative Arnolfo Teves Jr. was
not the only one whose microphone was turned off when he was raising his point
before the House members.
Atienza’s sound system was also muted when he was asked if
he is against Cayetano’s resignation to which he supposedly answered “yes, he
should resign on 14 October.”
“Alan had lost a lot of support,” Atienza said.
Not interested
A source had told Daily Tribune that when Cayetano’s camp
was about to present a manifesto of support signed by 205 lawmakers, no less
than President Duterte shunned the offer which was an indication that he is
strongly for the term-sharing deal.
Cayetano, however, after the meeting with the President took
the rostrum and offered his resignation before the members of Congress instead
of announcing the implementation of the deal with Velasco.
Because of this, Cayetano may have committed a big blunder
for defying what Duterte has ordered him, Atienza said.
“October 14, that was what the President said. So, honor
your word!” the lawmaker added.
When Cayetano’s group removed Velasco’s ally from his post
as deputy speaker, Atienza averred that it was Cayetano who had lost support
not Velasco.
During Friday’s plenary session, Deputy Majority Leader
Xavier Jesus Romualdo moved to replace 1-PACMAN Rep. Michael Romero with Capiz
Rep. Fredenil Castro.
This occurred despite the agreement between the President,
Cayetano and Velasco that except from the Speakership post, no House leadership
post will be changed.
Budget at risk
The Congress will not be able to pass the budget on time,
Nograles added.
The lawmakers lost one day and a half of legislative time
when Cayetano suspended the next day’s deliberation, Nograles noted.
“Every hour that is lost will delay the passage of the
budget,” Nograles said.
“What the congressmen are doing now is they work on it
overtime. If the budget is being rushed, like what’s happening now, there will
be a lot of issues there,” he added.
The same observation was echoed by Oriental Mindoro 1st
District Rep. Doy Leachon.
“These repressively draconian stunts being shown by the
House leadership like the unceremonious stripping off from key positions of
perceived non-allied leaders do not in any way promote harmony among house
members,” Leachon said.
“Worse, if these would carelessly persist, the unnoticed
growing resentment among congressmen particularly on the issue of their
immensely inequitable district budget allocation might later be blown out of
proportion to the detriment of the ongoing deliberation, the urgent legislative
priorities and the consequential stained image of Congress by reason of the
power struggle,” he continued.
Leachon, a supporter of Velasco, said despite the squabble,
Velasco assured that “no shake-up in committee chairmanships would thereafter
happen.”
Velasco, nevertheless, expects Cayetano to resign on 14
October.
“We expect him to hand over the authority to Cong. Velasco
with both of them exhibiting true traits of gentlemen complying with their
earlier agreement witnessed by President Duterte last 29 September 2020,”
Leachon said.
This article first appeared on Daily Tribune
