When change is not welcome

The Duterte administration’s economic team can finally heave a sigh of relief after the current brouhaha in the House of Representatives involving its leadership appears to have been resolved.

Finance Secretary Carlos  Dominguez III has repeatedly said that the 2021 budget is crucial to the recovery of the pandemic-stricken economy. There is no Plan B, so in case of a delay in the passage of the budget, the only option is to operate on a reenacted budget, which he warned would certainly delay economic recovery and the return to normal of the income levels of Filipino workers.

A majority of the House of Representatives has voted to keep Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano as Speaker, allowing our lawmakers to move on and focus on passing the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA), which is crucial for the Duterte administration to defeat the prolonged health and economic crises brought about by the global pandemic.

The House last Tuesday passed the proposed P4.5 trillion budget,  but the third reading will have to wait until the chamber comes back from a break which will last until Nov. 16.

Cayetano said that instead of the plenary deliberations, House members in groups of five or 10 could simply talk directly to Cabinet members to discuss any concerns about the proposed budget. Also, in lieu of amendments being proposed in the plenary, individual and committee amendments would be collated by a small committee which would submit the amendments to the House Committee on Appropriations by Nov. 5.

Meanwhile, amidst worries expressed by the Senate that the passage of the GAA will be delayed and will result in a reenacted budget, House Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte suggests that the Upper Chamber  consider just adopting the House-approved version if the Senate wants an early passage.

It will be recalled that President Duterte forged a gentleman’s agreement for a term-sharing between Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, under which Cayetano will serve as Speaker until this month followed by Velasco.

But even before his supposed term ends, Cayetano offered to resign early. However, 184 lawmakers or a majority of the House rejected his offer to quit, nine abstained, and only one voted for the Speaker’s resignation.

President Duterte has already distanced himself from the issue as it is a purely internal affair of the House, so the House membership will decide who their leader will be, according to presidential spokesman Harry Roque.

Roque said the President is more concerned with getting the budget approved early, as  a reenacted budget would not contain a COVID-19 response.

In short, the Palace cannot do anything if Velasco does not have the trust and the  votes of his colleagues, as shown by the outcome of the nominal voting in which 184 congressmen had rejected Cayetano’s offer to resign.

Keen observers of the House intramurals believe that a majority of the Lower House members repudiated change for fear of the unknown in the event that Velasco takes over. After all, the public seems to like how the House has been performing so far. In fact, according to the fourth quarter 2019 survey by the Social Weather Station, 63 percent  of Filipinos were satisfied and only 12 percent were dissatisfied with the House’s performance, or a net satisfaction rating of 51 percent. This was a marked improvement in the chamber’s poll ratings, which  had fallen to as low as negative nine percent in the past three decades.

In the Pulse Asia survey conducted in the first week of December 2019, or just less than six months into his term as Speaker, Cayetano emerged as the third most trusted official in the government, garnering a trust rating of 76 percent during that period, or an increase of 14 percentage points from his 62 percent rating in September.

There are also those who say that Velasco does not have the trust of his colleagues and of the public, especially since he did not contributed anything during the congressional deliberations on two crucial measures against COVID-19 – the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act  and the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2.

As Speaker, Cayetano led the House  last year in passing the 2020 national budget in record time of only 20 working days.

They said it did not come as a surprise, therefore when during Wednesday’s voting to reject or accept Cayetano’s resignation offer, no one stood up to defend Velasco and only one voted to accept Cayetano’s bid to quit.

Observers said that House members are worried of what will happen if an inexperienced legislator becomes Speaker.

Industry shake up

From being a Davao City-based family business of five fuel stations in 2005, an independent oil player has been experiencing  exponential growth and has in fact dislodged one of the major players from the top three spots.

According to the latest data on market share from the Department of Energy, Phoenix Petroleum now has the third biggest market share of 6.86 percent, dislodging the one holding the spot for decades.

The DOE report showed that the market leader had a 24.99 percent share of total petroleum products based on data as of Aug. 20, while the second one had an 18.25 percent share. Independent player Phoenix followed with 6.85, while the fourth player, a major oil company who was the third biggest market share holder for so long, had 6.13 percent. The oil company with the fifth largest share of the market had 6.48 percent, the sixth with 5.18 percent, the seventh 3.8 percent, the eight 3.3 percent, ninth three percent, and 10th two percent.

In the first quarter of this year, Phoenix registered a gross profit of P1.7 billion against revenues of P21.9 billion. Earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) was at P503 million, while operating income was registered at P179 million. The company posted a net loss of P215 million.

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