Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco on Tuesday blasted the "unilateral acts" of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and his allies to move for the second reading approval of the 2021 budget bill without finishing the scheduled plenary deliberations and then suspending sessions until Nov. 16.
In a statement, Velasco—speaking as the leader of the ruling PDP-Laban party in Congress—said that due to Cayetano's "desperate attempt" to remain Speaker, he has "bastardized" the House of Representatives and "committed serious violations" of the Constitution.
"The unilateral acts of Speaker Cayetano clearly translates to the loss of confidence by majority House members in him as he knows that the Super Majority Coalition is no longer with him in view of the glaring and blatant inequities in the district budget allocation for 2020 and 2021, where the lion shares only belong to few congressmen who are his allies and minions," he said.
"The foregoing acts manifest Speaker Cayetano’s extreme desire to hold on and hang on to power in clear defiance of President Duterte’s desire for the passage of fair and equitable budget that serves nothing but the interests of the Filipino people," Velasco said.
"He knows very well that he no longer enjoys the trust and confidence of House members. This caper is the last nail to his coffin. Speaker Cayetano, your time is up," he added.
Velasco added that the majority of congressmen are no longer supporting Cayetano "in view of the members’ resentment in the series of recent stripping off from key positions of House leaders who are not aligned to his autocratic style of management and administration of the House of Representatives."
Velasco said Cayetano and his allies should be held accountable for "railroading" the legislative process by terminating the budget deliberations right away and not giving enough time for lawmakers to scrutinize the budget of many government agencies.
"The railroading is contrary to the Speaker’s commitment for a national spending package that is open, transparent and meaningful and beneficial for the Filipino people," he said.
Velasco also said Cayetano employed a "flawed procedure" to alter the legislative calendar by suspending the session until Nov. 16 when it was supposed to be suspended on October 17.
"[The] haphazard declaration of the suspension of session… contradicts and violates the provisions of the Constitution on the inter-parliamentary courtesy, as Congress is composed of two chambers where suspension of that long period of time must be with the consent of the Senate of the Philippines," he said.
Velasco is convinced that Cayetano's move to "maneuver" the House rules and calendar was a result of his failure to secure President Rodrigo Duterte's full support to stay as Speaker and he simply "evaded" the expected transition of the speakership on October 14.
Last Friday, Velasco challenged Cayetano to honor the term-sharing agreement and step down from his post on October 14. This was after 184 lawmakers rejected Cayetano's offer to resign as Speaker last September 30.
“Speaker Cayetano, you gave your word in front of the President to honor the term-sharing agreement. Please, I appeal to you, finish the budget and resign on October 14,” Velasco said in a video message.
Under the original term-sharing agreement, Cayetano would hold the speakership for 15 months and Velasco would take over to finish the succeeding 21 months.
