"Cayetano should kiss his dream goodbye."
"Cayetano should kiss his dream goodbye."
As expected, Taguig Congressman-elect Alan Peter Cayetano tried to use his sponsored seminar for lawmakers in Clark, Pampanga Tuesday to sway the incoming members of the House to his side as he sets his sights on the Speakership.
And what could be a more sinister plot to hatch to lure the solons than bring to their plates something close to their hearts—a discussion for budgets for each of their representation.
In fact, according to reporters who covered the event, the seminar almost turned into a mini-session for a budget hearing as the lawmakers who attended event reportedly presented budgetary proposals and requisitions for each of their representation.
And that was the purpose why Cayetano had to invite Finance Secretary Carlos “Sonny” Domiguez, Public Works Sec. Mark Villar and other officials of the Department of Transportation and the Department of Budget and Management.
Cayetano even justified the presence of the Cabinet officials in his sponsored seminar.
“I assume (they) will talk about the country’s finances on how we will keep the economy growing and how Congress can help; and how these can help the individual districts of each congressman around the country,” Cayetano said.
But wasn’t the seminar intended for the training of new solons and for them to familiarize themselves with parliamentary and other House procedures? Isn’t Cayetano putting the incoming Congress in a compromising situation given the fact it has yet to convene and elects its leaders?
Cayetano’s speakership move is just getting shrewder.
Of course, he denied the seminar was aimed to boost his speakership campaign.
But then, he again made a slip when he said the event was intended for the lawmakers to determine for themselves what committee might interest them.
“It will give opportunity to see kung anong interest ng mga congressman sa mga chairmanships nila saka mga memberships,” Cayetano was quoted saying.
Again, he is putting his cart before the horse, preempting whoever gets elected to lead the House.
Having covered the House of Representatives, I have observed that the allocation for the committee chairmanships and memberships is the prerogative of the winning coalition led by the elected Speaker.
Hence, everything the lawmakers who attended Cayetano’s seminar will just be wishful thinking in the event the candidate they will support fails to get elected.
Fortunately, (or unfortunately for him), Cayetano will be hard-pressed to get the magic number for the speakership race. Even with the backing of San Juan and Mandaluyong Congressmen Ronnie Zamora and Boyet Gonzales and those Cabinet secretaries he invited, he still cannot muster enough support. His seminar betrayed the numbers of lawmakers most likely to support him (Most likely as some, if not most of them can still back out if they realize he has no chance of winning). Cayetano’s seminar attracted only 50 members of the incoming Congress.
Classic as it was, Cayetano’s move was an epic fail. He might as well kiss his speakership dream goodbye.
And maybe, if he can’t win the speakership, he might also have to bid adieu to his reported presidential bid in 2022.
No speakership means no venue for him to gain the needed pogi points. Unless he resorts to another with-hunting investigation to demolish someone like he and Senators Koko Pimentel and Antomnio Trillanes did to former Vice President from mid-2014 to early 2016, his stint in Congress will just be a boring one for him.