THE National Unity Party yesterday endorsed majority leader Martin Romualdez, the cousin of presumptive president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcios Jr., to be the speaker of the 19th Congress.
The NUP, the second largest party in the House of Representatives, expressed full support for Romualdez, saying its decision “was arrived at in recognition of his exemplary service as majority leader of the 18th Congress and his proven ability as a consensus builder for the different political parties in the House of Representatives.
“In a consultation with the NUP Members of the House of Representatives it was unanimously agreed to endorse Rep. Romualdez as the Speaker for the coming Congress,” NUP spokesman Reginald Velasco said in a statement.
The NUP is one the political parties accredited by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as a major national political party in the recent polls and is poised to be one of the largest political parties in the 19th Congress.
The speakership of the 19th Congress is said to be a toss-up between Romualdez, Lakas-CMD president, and former president and speaker Gloria Arroyo, the party’s president emeritus who were both instrumental in Marcos’ presidential campaign.
Outgoing Speaker Lord Allan Jay Velasco, who was re-elected after running unopposed, is unlikely to retain his post even if he is close to incoming vice president and outgoing Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.
If Romualdez becomes the next leader of the Lower House, Arroyo may be elected as chair of the powerful House committee on appropriations, which is tasked to review the annual national budget.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte of the Nacionalista Party, who retained his seat in the province’s second district, called on the incoming batch of lawmakers in both the Senate and the House to work with the incoming president “in crafting legislation in the 19th Congress that would support the would-be administration’s agenda to improve our people’s living standards and sustain the domestic economy’s high growth trajectory.”
“With his key pronouncements during the presidential campaign season, I am confident that BBM would genuinely pursue a political and economic agenda that would restore us back to the path of high and inclusive growth after it stumbled across speed bumps over the past two years as a result of the once-in-a-century pandemic and, later, the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” Villafuerte said.
