Speaker-in-waiting and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco will assume his post on Oct. 14 as his allies are set to hold a rump session of the House of Representatives on that day.
Under a term-sharing agreement in July 2019, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano would hold the speakership for the first 15 months of the 18th Congress while Velasco would take the remaining 21 months.
While Cayetano has maneuvered to stop the deal from going through this month, Velasco’s allies said they were confident they had enough votes to elect the Marinduque lawmaker as speaker on Oct. 14, despite the House decision to suspend sessions until Nov. 16.
But Cayetano allies, Deputy Speakers Luis Raymund Villafuerte and Neptali Gozales II of Mandaluyong, and Public Accounts committee chairman Rep. Michael Defensor said the holding of session on Oct. 14 is far-fetched and said it would be an illegal session.
“The session was adjourned. How they will do that, the plenary is closed,” Gonzales said.
They also said there was nothing irregular about the suspension of session last Tuesday. “The rules governing the virtual session was not designed against the Velasco group. It was designed to make Congress ready to do the legislative task [despite] the health quarantine protocols,” said Gonzales.
Villafuerte said there is “no pressing need” to call for a session during the break as the House has already approved the 2021 general appropriations bill on second reading on Tuesday.
Villafuerte said they would have 30 days during the break to work on the budget and get it ready for approval on third reading on Nov. 16.
Party-list Rep. Sharon Garin of AAMBIS-OWA, a Velasco ally, said Tuesday’s suspension moved many lawmakers to support their cause to uphold the term-sharing agreement, saying many of them reacted negatively to the maneuver.
Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza of Buhay said that the majority can call for a session if it wants to.
“If the majority decides to hold a session on the 14th, with or without Cayetano, we can do that. And I’m going to participate if anybody calls that session… if Velasco calls for a session on Oct. 14,” he said.
“I know there is a growing number of congressmen who are already agitated with all of these things happening. They are embarrassed and now support the term-sharing agreement, and Cayetano knows that,” he added.
Valenzuela City Rep. Eric Martinez, who also lost his chairmanship post on Tuesday, said a “great majority” of House members are unhappy with how Cayetano and his allies conducted the budget deliberations resulting in its abrupt passage. He also pointed out the irregular manner in which the budget was approved without completing deliberations for all government agencies.
“It was irregular to pass the budget without it being heard completely. Even the speaker stated in his speech that we cannot pass the budget as proposed. However, because of the latter’s unilateral actions and with the help of his close allies, the other members of Congress have been robbed of the chance to scrutinize the proposed national budget,” party-list Rep. Eric Pineda said.
Cebu City Rep. Rodrigo Abellanosa denounced Cayetano’s “autocratic style of management” when he and his handful of allies unilaterally terminated the budget deliberations, approved the spending plan on second reading despite pending issues, and suspended the plenary session until Nov. 16.
“While Speaker Cayetano and his close allies are wallowing in tens of billions of DPWH allocations for their districts, the two districts of Cebu City, which contributed substantially to the national coffers, are afforded only a measly fraction of a billion each. This is a big insult and affront to the people of Cebu City,” Abellanosa said.
“Some lawmakers were asking about the huge budget allocated to Speaker Cayetano and his close allies, but instead of answering, the speaker decided to railroad the budget, compose a group of his friends to amend it, and suspend session to have an early break and to hold on to power,” he added.
Reacting to Atienza’s claim that they had a majority, Deputy Speakers Dan Fernandez and Villafuerte in a statement assailed the former’s “poor grasp of numbers.”
“I just find it ridiculous that Congressman Atienza is now saying that it would be an affront to the President if we don’t vote for congressman Velasco, when he branded the House a lapdog and obedient follower of Malacañang when it denied the franchise application of ABS-CBN,”. Fernandez, who represents Laguna said.
“The talks leading to Oct. 14 is just pure psychological warfare, hearsay. They (Velasco camp) are just testing the reaction of their colleagues. But at the end of the day, it will be the numbers that would determine the outcome,” Villafuerte told reporters in a news conference.
