It’s final: LP to be minority

MANILA, Philippines – Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and 34 others, including his Liberal Party (LP) colleagues in the House of Representatives, will form the minority.

They have refused to join the super majority coalition of prospective speaker Pantaleon Alvarez in the incoming 17th Congress.

Belmonte said he has decided to run for speaker when Congress convenes on July 25, and losing the speakership race will automatically make him the leader of the House minority (or opposition) bloc.

“I am taking the challenge to be a responsible and lead fiscalizer, and I will perform my job as opposition leader,” said the reelected Quezon City congressman.

Belmonte, now on his third and last term, lamented that circumstances have forced them to join the ranks of the minority in the House, after talks between LP and the ruling PDP-Laban party of President Duterte bogged down, as the former dominant party’s membership has dwindled significantly.

“We were reduced and raided deliberately by the new majority. Our number now is 35 LP lawmakers. There is no reason to join the supermajority because we would be sidelined,” he said.

At the same time, Belmonte expressed fears the incoming House leadership may install a so-called “company union” in the minority, which means administration-friendly lawmakers may opt to join the opposition bloc if only to sabotage its ranks.

“He (Alvarez) might do that, but I hope not,” Belmonte said, referring to the dilution of ranks.  

As it is, there are two other lawmakers – aside from Belmonte – who are aspiring for the post of House minority leader – Reps. Danilo Suarez of Quezon and Toby Tiangco of Navotas, who belongs to the opposition United Nationalist Alliance.

Right now, the supermajority of PDP-Laban is composed of the Nacionalista Party, Nationalist People’s Coalition, the National Unity Party, and the 57 allied party-list groups.

PDP-Laban, the party that carried Duterte in the May 9 elections, increased its membership from just three to 93 in the House.

Quezon City Rep. Winnie Castelo said Belmonte would lead the “constructive minority” in the lower legislative chamber.

On the other hand, Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas – perceived to be the incoming House majority leader in the 17th Congress – complained that “LP has been vacillating as to whether it will join the majority coalition or not.”

“The PDP-Laban has been bending to accommodate all the LP’s requests, even to have 30 or so members joining the majority coalition,” Fariñas disclosed.

“But since June 7, which was the first agreed upon date for the signing of its coalition agreement with PDP-Laban, the LP has been vacillating,” Fariñas said, revealing the reason there was no agreement between the two parties.

As far as the Senate is concerned, the members of the majority coalition are independent of each other.

“Here we don’t need to have a formal (coalition) agreement,” presumptive Senate president Aquilino Pimentel III said. “We work together.”

Pimentel, president of PDP-Laban and the lone party member in the Senate, reportedly enjoys the support of 18 senators, including five from the LP, which gives him excellent chances of being elected Senate president. – With Paolo Romero