We welcome GMA as the new House Speaker

As expected, the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte was done smoothly in about an hour, a little more than what Malacañang officials said would be a 35-minute speech. But I scrutinized his eyes and clearly he was reading his speech and not making any extemporaneous remarks. That third SONA didn’t have a single cuss word or “putang ina” that came out of his mouth. In short, it was President Duterte’s most presidential speech since he assumed office.

But the SONA was delayed for more than an hour, which was not the fault of President Duterte, rather something was stirring in the House of Representatives. Something was brewing in the House and people believed that a coup d’ etat was underway to throw House Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez out. We heard talk about the ouster of Speaker Alvarez in recent months, most especially after his public rift with the president’s daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio, who has formed a regional party in Mindanao. We thought it wasn’t that serious, but apparently it was.

The session hall of the House of Representatives was tense last Monday as lawmakers from both camps worked to secure the needed 147 votes to oust Alvarez and elect former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The session was abruptly adjourned a few minutes after noon on Monday following an hour of talks among lawmakers. Suddenly out of the blue, we learned Alvarez had been removed from his post and Arroyo was installed as the new Speaker of the House.

But in a most civilized and politically mature manner, there were three personalities in the main seats at the Batasang Pambansa, President Duterte, Senate President Tito Sotto, and Alvarez, as if the effort to oust him failed. But don’t get it wrong, Arroyo already took her oath as the House of Representatives’ new speaker, apparently replacing Alvarez during a crucial time in the government’s efforts to amend the Constitution. According to media reports, the plan to oust Alvarez and install Arroyo was finalized over the weekend, with the surrogates of the president’s daughter working for her.

In my book, the assumption of House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo into the Congressional leadership was pure karma. What we just saw was a dramatic political rehabilitation for Arroyo, who was earlier jailed for allegations of corruption during the time of former president Benigno Aquino III. She has since been acquitted of charges that kept her in a hospital jail for nearly three years.

Arroyo was the vice president who succeeded as president after the 2001 military-backed revolt called EDSA 2 that ousted former president Joseph “Erap” Estrada over allegations of corruption in his government. Estrada was later convicted of plunder only to be pardoned by Arroyo. Of course, we’ve always believed that she shouldn’t have pardoned Erap or at least she should have prevented him from seeking public office again.

Then in 2005, allegations of cheating known as the “Hello, Garci” scandal became public eye, and Arroyo’s hold on power never looked so brittle. But somehow, she was able to hurdle all these negative issues that hounded her presidency. But all those allegations have been thrown away by the Sandiganbayan, which means that she is pretty clean. Now that she is the Speaker of the House, she holds a considerable amount of power and is given the task to steer the legislative agenda of the president in the House.

President Duterte submitted to the House of Representatives the first cash-based budget for 2019 after he delivered the SONA which is something for Arroyo to look into seriously. Meanwhile, despite her previous negative records which she has hurdled with uncanny efficiency, her new position is really one of power as she is also close to President Duterte.

But for us down-to-the-core Catholics, we welcome the assumption of Arroyo as House Speaker because we know that during her term as president, she really stopped those liberals from getting important issues like same-sex marriage or divorce into the limelight. God has clearly kept the Philippines under his control and has now put in place the right people to handle our nation with his divine care.

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