50 LP members support Duterte, Alvarez

MANILA, Philippines - About 50 House members from the Liberal Party (LP) yesterday signed a manifesto of support for incoming president Rodrigo Duterte and incoming speaker Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez.

Some LP congressmen, who asked not to be identified, said the move paves the way for them to join the PDP-Laban in the coming weeks.

Surprisingly, it was Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. who called for the meeting of LP members and asked them to sign the manifesto.

Belmonte told them that he would sign the manifesto once all of those wishing to join the majority would have done so.

“I’m ready to shield him (Duterte) from impeachment threats and help him achieve his goals,” Belmonte said in a text message when asked whether he had signed the document.

Belmonte was supposed to challenge Alvarez in the speakership race on July 25 but the Speaker admitted that his rival has the numbers to win.

If Belmonte runs and loses the speakership race, he automatically becomes the minority leader.

He said after declaring last week that he intended to run again for a third term as speaker, many LP members confided to him that they do not want to be with the minority bloc.

He said because of the sentiment shared by many of his colleagues from the LP, he contacted Alvarez and told him of their intention to join the majority.

If Belmonte does not run, he will play the role of a “senior statesman,” a close colleague said.

Incoming Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez of the United Nationalist Alliance has offered to be the “cooperative” minority leader, which meant he would challenge Alvarez, knowing that he would lose.

“I will run for speaker, but the objective is to be minority leader,” Suarez said. “It will be to the best interest of the administration if we will have a cooperative minority.”

 ‘Override veto on SSS pension hike’

Meanwhile, LP members shifting to the camp of Duterte have been urged to override President Aquino’s veto on the proposed P2,000 hike in pension from the Social Security Service (SSS).

“We urge Congress members from the LP who plan to switch to the succeeding Duterte administration to prove their worth in working for change by overriding  the veto of the P2,000 SSS pension hike,” Anakpawis Rep. Fernando  Hicap said in a statement.

Hicap noted that in March in Angeles City, Pampanga, Duterte vowed to reverse the presidential veto of the pension hike.?“A lot of people are banking on the presumptive president’s slogan that ‘change is coming,’ and we assert that it should start as soon as possible, initially with the increase in pension of SSS members,” he said.  – With Ding Cervantes