‘Oust me’ plot seen shielding Marcos cousin
AN ally of Speaker Lord Allan Velasco yesterday accused the Lakas-CMD party of spreading coup rumors against the House leader, in a bid to preempt any move by the administration to oust majority leader Martin Romualdez.
Rep. Michael Aglipay (PL, DIWA), chair of the House committee on good government, said Lakas-CMD members are obviously just trying to protect Romualdez, party president, from being replaced as majority leader after President Duterte expressed displeasure over the decision of his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, to run for vice president under Lakas-CMD, the party of former President Gloria Arroyo, with former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as the party’s adopted presidential candidate
Romualdez said there is “absolutely no basis to Aglipay’s insinuations.”
“This is utterly preposterous. Once again, these rumors did not originate from us and we don’t have any intention of changing the leadership in the House of Representatives,” he said in a statement. “We should all stop these finger-pointing and destructive politics and concentrate on passing the 2022 budget and other significant measures that will help our country recover from the ill-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Romualdez and Marcos are cousins.
President Duterte is supporting the presidential candidacy of Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go who was running for vice president until Duterte-Carpio decided to seek the same position.
Velasco is a supporter of Duterte-Carpio who accepted the chairmanship of Lakas-CMD yesterday.
Aglipay, in an online press conference, said, “Tingin ko galing din sa kanila (Lakas) ang info na yan. Ang nakuha kong text during the entire Monday was to unseat Speaker. Ang concern lang nila is si majo [majority leader] Romualdez. (I think that info came from them. The text I got the entire Monday was to unseat Speaker. Their only concern is majo Romualdez),”
A select group of some 100 congressmen led by Velasco attended a dinner-meeting in Malacañang on Tuesday night. Romualdez and members of his party were not among those invited.
Aglipay, who was among those who attended, said the President and Go did not call for anyone’s ouster during the dinner-meeting but moved to consolidate support for him and Duterte-Carpio, even if she is with Lakas-CMD.
“The agenda is to support a BG-Sara tandem. The President spoke briefly,” he said in mixed Filipino and English. “He endorsed the Bong Go-Sara Duterte tandem.”
Aglipay said Lakas may have floated the coup rumors against Velasco as a veiled threat: “Palalabasin nila gagalawin nila si Speaker kaya huwag kami mag-attempt (They’ll make it appear that they’ll move against Speaker so we shouldn’t make an attempt to replace Romualdez).”
Aglipay, however dismissed the alleged threat, saying there are only around 30 Lakas members in the House while 200 are still solidly behind Velasco.
He said the President was obviously “blaming” Lakas for the Marcos-Sara tandem when the Chief Executive said in a recent interview that Marcos was the one who convinced his daughter to slide down and run for vice president instead of president.
“He blames Lakas for this, for the tandem of kung sino ka-tandem ni Sara,” said Aglipay, pointing out that the President who, like Go is running under the Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan (PDDS) as senator, has made clear he is against Marcos’ presidential bid and even accused the son of the late dictator of being “pro-communist.”
Romualdez said the President did not make any categorical statement blaming Lakas-CMD for his daughter’s decision to run for vice president with Marcos.
“We would like to refer Rep. Mike Aglipay to the interview of President last Sunday with regard Mayor Sara’s decision. Nowhere in his statement did the President blame Lakas-CMD or any member of the party for the mayor’s decision,” he said.
The majority leader also reiterated the House’s “strong and unequivocal” support for the President and his senatorial bid next year, vowing to continue working closely with Malacañang in pushing for the administration’s legislative agenda in the remaining months of the 18th Congress.
PALACE MEETING
Cabinet Secretary and acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles said the President hosted an informal gathering of lawmakers in Malacanang Tuesday night to see “longtime friends” whom he had not seen for a while due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said more gatherings are expected to be attended by the President with the steady decline in the number of COVID-19 cases and the positive impact of the government’s vaccination program.
“The Palace confirms that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte met with several lawmakers last night, November 16, 2021, in Malacañang. It was an informal and relaxed gathering with lawmakers, many of whom are friends of the President dating back to his days as mayor of Davao City. It was, for the President, an opportunity to see friends he had not personally seen since the onset of the pandemic due to the restrictions that had been put in place,” Nograles said.
Go said a number of congressmen, on the request of the House leadership, met with him and President Duterte Tuesday night to show their support for them.
The ruling but fractured administration party PDP-Laban said it as alliances with other parties such as the PDDS, and this has kept the party members in “high spirit and morale.’ — With Jocelyn Montemayor, Raymond Africa and Ashzel Hachero
The statement from the Cusi faction of the PDP-Laban was issued after Duterte-Carpio said her party had sought an alliance with PDP-Laban and asked for support for her tandem with Marcos, but the PDP rejected her call.
The other faction has Sen. Emmanuel Pacquiao as presidential candidate and Rep. Lito Atienza as vice.
Cusi faction secretary general Melvin Matibag said they respect the statements and decision of Duterte-Carpio but they chose to support Go’s presidential bid and Duterte’s senatorial run under the PDDS.
Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. said he offered the chairmanship post of Lakas-CMD, which he held, to Duterte-Carpio because he has “full trust and confidence in Mayor Sara Duterte’s leadership.”
