Sara, Paolo mum on term sharing of speaker

MANILA, Philippines — Davao City Rep. Paolo “Pulong” Duterte and Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio kept silent on the division of the speaker’s three-year term between Reps. Alan Peter Cayetano of Taguig and Lord Allan Velasco of Marinduque.

As of yesterday afternoon, there has been no reaction from the two leaders of the Duterte Coalition on the Cayetano-Velasco term sharing brokered by their father.

Two days before President Duterte ended the bitter and divisive squabble among his allies over the speakership, the son-and-daughter team opposed term sharing and denounced unnamed Cabinet members reportedly pushing for it.

“It is counterproductive. It will slow down the last three years of the administration of President Duterte… We do not know why the term sharing influencers do not seem to care what will happen to the House,” Sara said.

“They just want to install a speaker and do not think about what comes after. Let us leave the speaker issue to the members of the House of Representatives and the political parties and that include (Hugpong ng Pagbabago or HNP) and (Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod),” she said.

For his part, Paolo gave up his speakership bid after talking to the President last Thursday in favor of fellow Davao Rep. Isidro Ungab, who was supported by Sara’s HNP.

“It has come to our attention that certain Cabinet members have their bet for speaker. Everyone should note that Cabinet members serve only on the basis of the trust and confidence of the President and should not participate in the selection of the speaker,” Paolo said.

He urged the Cabinet officials and lawmakers to “draw the line to define the independence of the executive and legislative branches of government.”

“Congressmen and congresswomen are elected and serve a mandate with an authority direct from the people. These lawmakers are the only rightful electorate for their leader,” Paolo said.

The siblings formed the Duterte Coalition “to unite the House.” They endorsed Ungab of Davao City’s third district as a compromise candidate for speaker.

Velasco, who the Duterte siblings initially supported, had repeatedly opposed term sharing.

But when it was clear that Cayetano and certain Cabinet members were pushing hard for term sharing, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, who is president of the administration Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, announced that Velasco was open to it.

The ruling party earlier chose Velasco as its candidate for speaker.

Support

The 54-member Party-list Coalition (PLC) and the group of speakership aspirant Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez yesterday decided to support the President’s proposal to split the speaker’s three-year term between two of his close allies.

“We have decided to respect and adhere to the recommendation of the President in the interest of the unity of the House and the nation. We are happy that he made a suggestion, which all of us have been waiting for,” Rep. Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman, PLC president, told reporters after meeting with his group for more than three hours.

Romero said lawmakers should not go against the wishes of the President “or we will have a disruptive type of government.”

Romero said both Cayetano and Velasco have asked the coalition to submit to them its wish list of House and committee assignments.

“We will comply with it,” he said.

Like the Romero coalition, Romualdez and his group met and discussed the President’s proposal. At least 72 Romualdez supporters showed up at a meeting yesterday afternoon at Marco Polo Hotel in Pasig City.

Speaking for the group, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said they are supporting term sharing, “no ifs, no buts.”

“Martin is accepting the position of majority leader. We asked Martin to do his job to develop a robust and dynamic relationship with the speaker. They should fight for the agenda of President Duterte,” he said.

Salceda added that he saw no problem in the President, speaker and majority leader belonging to different political parties.

There was no statement from Romualdez, who will be majority leader until June 2022.

Another Romualdez ally, Rep. Mike Defensor of party-list Anakalusugan, said the President made a good choice in naming the Visayan legislator as the next majority leader.

“Martin is capable and competent to push the passage of President Duterte’s economic measures,” Defensor said.

There was no word from Velasco and Ungab.

Senate, House relations

Better relations between the Senate and the House are expected with the assumption of Cayetano as speaker in the 18th Congress, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said yesterday.

He noted that it is the second time in the country’s history that a former senator became speaker of the House.

“(Cayetano) knows us, we know him and I do not mean that literally only,” Sotto told reporters.

Sotto said he does not expect any changes in the way the Senate will deliberate on the proposed 2020 national budget that will emanate from the House, regardless of who the speaker is.

The Senate will ensure that the budget will be “diligently scrutinized without favoring anyone,” Sotto added.

“It’s not the leadership in question, it’s the content of the budget that will need our undivided attention,” he said.

The Department of Budget and Management is reportedly putting together a P4.1-trillion budget for Congress’ approval.

The approval of this year’s P3.7-trillion national budget was delayed to last March instead of December 2018 after senators and House members traded accusations on the existence of pork in the spending bill.  – With Edith Regalado, Paolo Romero, Delon Porcalla