Senate front: ‘No move to change leaders, for now’
THE National Unity Party (NUP), the second largest political party at the House of Representatives, yesterday declared its support for the retention of Martin Romualdez as speaker of the chamber in the incoming 20th Congress.
“A leadership shakeup could only put this administration’s priority agenda at serious risk in the House of Representative, possibly leading to irreversible legislative drift in the remaining half of the Marcos presidency,” the NUP, through its president Camarines Rep. Luis Villafuerte, said, in a statement.
The NUP has 34 members, making it the second biggest power bloc in the Congress, next to the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD), which Romualdez heads as president.
At the Senate, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said there are no moves yet for a Senate leadership shakeup but expects more conversations now that the composition of the 20th Congress is known.
“I think that most of the senators were just waiting for the proclamation of the winners, and this will set in motion talks about what the new composition of the Senate will be, especially its leadership,” he said in Filipino in an interview with radio dzBB.
The 12 winning senators were officially proclaimed by the Commission on Elections last Saturday.
Talks about a possible change in the Senate’s leadership were triggered by the statement of Vicente Sotto III that he is willing to be Senate president again.
Any member of the Senate can be chosen as president by a majority vote of at least 13 of the 24 senators.
Senate President Francis Escudero has said he will leave his fate to his colleagues but clarified that it is not only Sotto who is qualified to become Senate president.
CONTINUITY
At the House, Villafuerte said the NUP supports “100 percent the continuity of the Bagong Pilipinas agenda of President Marcos of better lives for all Filipinos in the second half of his presidency.”
“And for the House to help stay the course of this pro-poor and pro-growth vision in the Congress, it is crucial for Speaker Martin to remain at the helm of the bigger chamber to continue shepherding the passage of the priority bills of this administration meant to spell high, inclusive and sustainable growth,” he said.
Villafuerte noted that before the 19th Congress adjourned for the midterm elections, the Romualdez-led House was able to pass 88 laws of national significance, including those identified as priority bills by the President and the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC)
The House has also passed 61 of 64 bills on the Common Legislative Agenda (CLA) listed by the House, including 27 of the 28 measures identified by LEDAC.
“As one idiom goes: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” Villafuerte said. “Leadership continuity is so essential at this point, given that Filipinos have started to reap the benefits of the initiatives that have been carried out in the first three years of the Marcos presidency to improve their lives.”
For example, he said, rice-related laws and Malacañang initiatives passed by or supported by the Congress have enabled the government to start selling quality rice at P20 a kilo, “which is a fulfillment of a 2022 campaign promise of the President.”
Villafuerte issued the statement of support for the current leadership after Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco said last week that he would challenge Romualdez in the speakership race only if it will help President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and if his colleagues will support him.
Tiangco served as campaign manager for the administration’s Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas in the senatorial race. He expressed willingness to join the speakership race as he tried to deflect blame for the defeat of five of the 11 administration senatorial candidates of the Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas in the May 12 midterm elections.
He was reacting to the statement of incoming Sen. Panfilo Lacson who said that among the reasons for the defeat of almost half of Alyansa’s candidates were the failure of the administration’s machinery and the remaining influence of former president Rodrigo Duterte despite being detained in the Netherlands where is facing trial by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Lacson is one of the winning Alyansa candidates. The others are Sotto, Rep. Erwin Tulfo, reelectionist senators Lito Lapid and Pia Cayetano, and Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar.
LEVERAGE
A House said Tiangco may have floated his name as among those eyeing the House’s top post so he could use it as leverage to secure the chairmanship of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations which reviews the annual national budget.
Tiangco has attributed the defeat of the five candidates to the House’s move to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte, saying it was the reason the Alyansa lost in Mindanao where the candidates were advised to individually campaign in lieu of grand rallies.
Tiangco has said the decision to shun rallies in Mindanao was reached because the campaign team already knew it would be difficult for administration’s slate to win votes in Mindanao, which is the bailiwick of the Dutertes.
Tiangco said the House leadership did not listen to him when he opposed the decision to impeach the Vice President but he was later rebuked by House leaders, who said that almost 82 percent of the congressmen who endorsed the impeachment complaint won reelection, including those from Mindanao.
Stalwarts of pro-administration political parties, including the NUP, attended a leadership meeting at a hotel in Makati City last Friday, the first post-election caucus.
LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
Gatchalian said there are no actual talks about a change in Senate leaders at the moment despite Sotto’s intention to be Senate president anew.
“I expect more talks about the Senate leadership now that the winners were proclaimed last Saturday. But as of late, the talks were only informal ones. We have not sat together to discuss it,” Gatchalian said in Filipino during the radio interview.
Gatchalian also said it would also be an advantage if the Senate leader is familiar with the Rules of Court, considering the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, which will likely start in July.
He also said the Senate president, who will act as presiding officer during the impeachment trial, should have good leadership qualities because he or she will have to deal with 23 senator-judges during the trial proper.
