LAWMAKERS from both chambers of Congress have agreed to elect Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez as Speaker of the House of Representatives and Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri as Senate President. The decision was made weeks ahead of the opening of the 19th Congress yesterday, following a series of meetings among members of the majority in both houses.
Romualdez’ assumption to the Speaker’s seat is timely because the new President is his cousin. But even without that added consanguinity, Martin Romualdez is a strong candidate for the speakership because of his popularity among his colleagues. Close supporters like Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. and Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers are one in saying that Romualdez displayed a “sterling performance” in the previous 18th Congress as majority leader and is therefore ripe for a promotion.
‘… the Congress of the Philippines is starting its work of legislation on the right path of consensus building, hoping that this could translate into nation-building under the new Marcos administration.’
Barbers said the new speaker is a “consensus builder who helped stabilize political turmoil among members of the august chamber during the Velasco-Cayetano speakership rift in October 2020.” Aside from this, the Leyte congressman was credited for steering the House majority and minority members in the passage of COVID-19 palliative subsidies called Bayanihan 1 and 2 for the nation’s pandemic-ravaged poor.
In the Senate, the new leadership of Senate President Zubiri also rose from consensus. Several meetings were held among the supermajority and even the nascent minority to arrive at important decisions such as committee chairmanships.
The Senate will have a huge change in composition with the entry of the 12 winners in the May 9 elections — three first-time senators, four reelected and five former senators. They are Robinhood Padilla, Raffy Tulfo, Mark Villar, Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Jose Victor Ejercito, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Loren Legarda, Sherwin Gatchalian, Risa Hontiveros, Joel Villanueva, and Zubiri.
Consensus, too, was behind the decision to choose Sen. Francis Tolentino as chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee, following the attempt by Senator Cayetano to get the committee in return for his joining the majority. Zubiri had the good sense to refer this problem to the members of the majority group and let them decide on their choice, since in the ultimate analysis, whoever the Senate as a whole will elect to head the Committee on Public Accountability on Tuesday, July 26, will prevail. Both Cayetano and Tolentino say either one of them is qualified to lead this panel, a position nobody wanted until Tolentino accepted the offer to take on the challenge.
It is a good thing, therefore, that the Congress of the Philippines is starting its work of legislation on the right path of consensus building, hoping that this could translate into nation-building under the new Marcos administration.
