LP lawmakers to stay with House super majority

MANILA, Philippines - The 30 Liberal Party (LP) members allied with the super majority in the 293-member House of Representatives will stay with the coalition cobbled together by the ruling PDP-Laban party of President Duterte.

LP Reps. Teddy Baguilat of Ifugao province and Jose Christopher Belmonte of Quezon City said this was the consensus reached by the party at a meeting called by LP president emeritus and former president Benigno Aquino III in Quezon City.

“We all agreed that let’s give it more time to discuss the issues at hand,” Baguilat, who belongs to the independent opposition bloc who call themselves the “Magnificent 7,” told reporters in an interview. Sen. Francis Pangilinan of the LP was seated beside him.

Baguilat said “dynamics in the Senate are a little different” from those in the House, which means the LP faction identified with the majority bloc cannot be expected to leave the administration coalition easily.

Of the seven opposition legislators, five are from LP – Baguilat himself, Edcel Lagman of Albay, Raul Daza of northern Samar, Edgar Erice of Caloocan and Emmanuel Billones of Capiz.

The two others are Reps. Gary Alejano and Tom Villarin of party-list groups Magdalo and Akbayan, respectively.

Belmonte, who was also present during the press conference, told reporters that the priority is to debate freely on the issues.

“It’s about time the voice of the LP as a party should be heard once again,” he said.  

Belmonte, who is pro-life, is allied with the administration coalition of Duterte. 

The LP titular head in the House, former speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., was also present at the meeting.

The elder Belmonte is among the LP officials who have been given committee chairmanships in the House, courtesy of incumbent Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

Belmonte now heads the special committee on the West Philippine Sea.

The House leadership under Alvarez has declared that it will adopt a “party vote” on the efforts of government to restore capital punishment, which has been repeatedly endorsed by Duterte.

“They are free to resign from the party. I will not force them,” the Davao del Norte congressman told reporters earlier. “I will just tell the members of PDP-Laban that the party stand will be observed on the restoration of the death penalty.”

This policy covers the more than 100 PDP-Laban members, along with parties allied with it.

“I already asked also their cooperation since they belong to the majority,” Alvarez said, referring to the Nacionalista Party, Nationalist People’s Coalition, National Unity Party, Lakas-NUCD, Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino and the divided LP.

The super majority coalition accounts for nearly the entire 293-member House, as even lawmakers from the militant bloc are now supportive of the Duterte administration, including party-list congressmen.

Party-list lawmakers or sectoral representatives in the House number about 60; 22 are with the minority bloc of Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez and about seven are from the militant Makabayan.

The steadfast anti-administration lawmakers belong to the so-called Magnificent 7.

Reorganization

A day after the LP senators were ousted from the Senate majority, the chamber’s reorganization is now complete and a rejuvenated minority bloc has emerged.

Sen. Franklin Drilon, formerly Senate President Pro Tempore, is the new minority leader.

Former minority leader Sen. Ralph Recto was elected the new Senate President Pro Tempore, a position he has held before. 

Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV was designated as assistant minority leader.

Sen. Leila de Lima, currently in detention, manifested before yesterday’s plenary session that she is also joining her LP colleagues in the minority bloc.

In a handwritten letter to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, De Lima said that she is “formally withdrawing from the majority in order to join the minority bloc in the Senate.”

The Senate minority now has six members – Drilon, Aquino, De Lima, Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan and Antonio Trillanes IV.

Sen. Francis Escudero, previously with the minority, is now with the majority.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said that what took place was a political decision.

Lacson said that the members of the majority bloc were frequently placed in an awkward situation, where the LP senators were voting the same way as the minority on certain issues.

He said that the decision to oust the LP members was easily decided among the members of the majority bloc because they all felt the situation had become untenable.

Lacson noted that the majority saw fit to reduce the chairmanships of LP senators to only three.

“If we were merciless we would not have left any committee to them. Remember, a senator who doesn’t chair any committee will not have MOOE (maintenance and other operating expenditures). This is not a small amount,” Lacson said.

“We deliberated on it, we wanted to be fair. We just wanted to make a statement and we wanted to make ourselves comfortable when we hold caucuses on issues pertaining to the Senate,” he added.

He said the reorganization was not because of any pressure coming from Malacañang.

In a statement made after the reorganization that took place last Monday, Drilon pointed out that the LP senators supported Pimentel as Senate president.

“That’s on the record. We offered him six votes and part of the first 13 votes that he got included seven from LP and its allies,” Drilon said.

Lacson said that this was a matter between the LP senators and Pimentel and had no bearing on the decision made to oust them last Monday.

Recto, a member of the LP, said that his decision to join the majority bloc was “to help craft the legislative agenda of the Senate.”

As minority leader, Recto said that his role was more of a fiscalizer.

“I have no problem with colleagues in the minority or with LP members. Remember I was minority and they were majority. So no hard feelings,” Recto said. – With Marvin Sy, Paolo Romero