GMA shows them how

Former president and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was interviewed by GMA-7 news anchor Arnold “Igan” Clavio yesterday at the “Unang Hirit” early morning talk show program of the TV network. She sat down with Igan for a brief one-on-one interview a month after she was installed as new Speaker of the House of Representatives last July 23.

Igan got the exclusive interview not because the Speaker – who is also known for her initials “GMA” – favors GMA-7. With a dash of trivia, the Speaker volunteered the information she used to have a car plate GMA-7 while she was still a Senator. It was during her first term as Senator when both Igan and I covered her while we were still pounding the beat as young reporters then and until she became the President of the country.

Now on her third and last term as Congresswoman representing her birthplace of Lubao, Pampanga, GMA finally accepted to spend her remaining term as Speaker, coinciding with the third and last regular sessions of the 17th Congress. While she resisted the post being offered to her on a silver platter, so to speak, her ascension as House Speaker thus came out as anti-climax by the unceremonious ouster of Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez as Speaker.

From being an ordinary Congresswoman, GMA was elected by the ruling majority to replace Alvarez a few hours before the state of the nation address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte. Fortunately for Alvarez, GMA remained a stateswoman to give it to him to stay on as Speaker to preside for the last time the traditional joint opening sessions of the Senate and the House on SONA day of the President.

Taped as live at the sprawling Arroyo family residence at La Vista exclusive village in Quezon City, Igan tried but failed to elicit confirmation from GMA on reports that she twice rejected offers to make her as new House Speaker. But not until presidential daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte called her up on the eve of the SONA. The inevitable fate of Alvarez was sealed and the rest, as we say, is history.

“I’ve kept quiet because all those behind it (Alvarez ouster) should be the ones to talk about it. Now that they have talked, it’s up to them to tell their stories,” Speaker GMA pointed out.

Quoting her talks with Alvarez a few days after the ouster of the erstwhile Speaker, “Let’s move on,” was her mere reply to the events leading to her taking over as the country’s fourth highest elected official. “So let’s move on with the President’s legislative agenda. As the job of the Speaker, I would do it,” she firmly said. It was her way of telling Igan to drop the subject and move to his next questions.

And move on she did as new Speaker.

Shepherding the list of priority administration bills enumerated by President Duterte in his SONA, GMA reported a big accomplishment on her first month as Speaker. Before they adjourned last Aug. 17, Speaker GMA cited all the President’s priority bills, except one, are in various advanced stages at the legislative mills.    

The first law she produced as Speaker was the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), the ratification of which by the Lower House got stalled during the Speakership change.

On the way for House plenary approval, she noted, is the proposed Rice Tariffication which is up for third reading when session resumes on Aug. 28.

The bill on the creation of the Department of Disaster Reduction (DDR) and the proposed second package of tax reform measures are both in the period of interpellation at the Lower House.

 She, however, was quick to correct Igan to credit the approval into law of these bills as “legacy” of her brief stint as Speaker. “I don’t have a legacy. All I want is to help the President. For me, I would do my work, my main job to push the legislative agenda as spelled out in the President’s SONA,” she stressed.

Asked to comment on supposed grand designs to groom her to become Prime Minister in the proposed Charter change draft being done by the Constitutional Commission (ConCom), Speaker GMA turned aghast. 

Turning to her much vaunted feistiness, Speaker GMA challenged those who play up such scenario to read the draft Charter submitted to President Duterte by the ConCom. “There is no mention of parliamentary system but presidential. So I don’t have such plans,” the Speaker glared.

On President Duterte’s push for shift to federal system of government, Speaker GMA took the middle ground. “I’m in favor to discuss the pros and the cons. Hopefully through a Constituent Assembly,” she said.

This is the reason, she added, she and her House allies immediately authored a House Resolution calling for a Constituent Assembly that would conduct separate voting by the Senate and the House of Representatives on Charter change. “So the ConCom draft would go through a debate at the Constituent Assembly and like a bill that we pass, it must be debated at the Assembly,” she explained. 

However, given barely ten months that she has as Speaker, she doubts the timeframe would be enough to complete this specific task. “But at least, during my term, it (debate) will continue,” she quipped.

Like President Duterte, the 71-year-old Congresswoman is ready to step down after the end of her term next year.  Her eldest son, Mikey Arroyo, will make a comeback run for the 2nd congressional district of Pampanga.

While she is no longer wearing in public her neck brace, Speaker GMA admitted she has to put it on whenever she goes on travel by land or by air. She is still undergoing therapy years after her spine surgery to ease the shooting pains in her left shoulder going down her arm and hand.

A septuagenarian like President Duterte, GMA is also ready to retire from the public eye. According to her, she wants to devote her time to complete her memoirs. As of this time, she disclosed, her memoirs are already in the finishing touches. But she has to redo it to include this latest chapter of her political life as first woman Speaker of the Philippine Congress and show them how.