THE once powerful Liberal Party is now pleading with the PDP-Laban to stop the “raid,” treat the Liberals as “equals” and not force them to switch parties if they want to join the so-called Coalition for Change.
Ifugao Rep.-elect Teddy Brawner Baguilat made the plea after the PDP-Laban made it a condition for the Liberals, mostly third termers who want to bag the major committee chairmanships, to first switch parties.
Baguilat made his statement even as the 37-member party-list coalition in the 17th Congress on Wednesday expressed full support to incoming House Speaker and Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, the top pick of President-in-waiting Rodrigo Duterte.
The party-list group, led by 1-PACMAN party-list Rep. Mikee Romero, signed a coalition agreement with Alvarez of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan at a breakfast meeting at The Peninsula Manila hotel in Makati City.
Romero said they fully supported the leadership of Alvarez, who has promised to initiate reforms in the next administration by passing vital legislative measures that will benefit the Filipino people.
The Liberals have won more than 100 seats, but they were among the first ones to jump ship and defect to the PDP-Laban, abandoning Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., the vice chairman of the LP, in his fight to retain the highest post.
Baguilat said the treatment was not fair as the PDP-Laban allowed other major parties and former LP allies, such as the Nationalist People’s Coalition, Nacionalista Party and opposition Lakas-CMD, to coalesce with them while the Liberals were being made to swear allegiance to the party under which Davao del Norte Rep.-elect Pantaleon Alvarez and presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte ran and won.
Several third-term Liberals, including Belmonte’s most trusted lieutenants who were lobbying for the major committee chairmanships, had jumped ship ahead of those from the other parties and joined Alvarez in the majority.
The PDP-Laban won only three seats, including that of Alvarez, in the recent polls and due to the “exodus” and daily defections is now fast becoming the ruling party in the House of Representatives.
In the first salvo of defections, Alvarez announced some 50 congressmen from the Liberal Party had switched sides and vowed to back his speakership bid.
Belmonte confirmed the Liberals would want to remain with the majority but those like him would align themselves with the minority.
Belmonte, however, said the Liberals would not take the lead role in either the majority or minority, which would be contested by the opposition United Nationalist Alliance.
UNA has yet to decide who among its 17 members would slug it out for the minority leadership. UNA president and Navotas Rep.-elect Toby Tiangco and returning former Minority Leader Quezon Rep.-elect Danilo Suarez were both eyeing the position.
Tiangco and Suarez were mulling term-sharing but it was not clear yet who takes the first half of the term.
Belmonte asked Alvarez to stop the raid and leave him with at least 20 Liberals. Alvarez agreed.
Being the most senior, the last-term Liberals would not be given committee chairmanships if they belonged to the minority, so they opted to remain with the majority.
Under the existing House rules, only the chairmanship of the House committee on ethics is given to the minority.
But the minority is also given a single seat representation in the House contingent to the powerful Commission on Appointments that confirms all Cabinet secretaries, ambassadors and other diplomatic posts and top positions in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The 32-strong Northern Alliance did not appear as solid in the much-touted “Solid North” as only 20 lawmakers showed up and signed the coalition agreement on Wednesday at the Rembrandt Hotel in Quezon City.
Baguilat was among those listed as being a member of the Northern Alliance but he made it clear that he was inclined to join the minority. But he said he preferred Belmonte to be the minority leader.
On Tuesday, at least 12 old and neophyte lawmakers from the Mindanao bloc were sworn in as new party members under the PDP-Laban at the Marco Polo Hotel in Ortigas.
Also at the Marco Polo to join the Duterte bandwagon was House Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora of the NP, who switched parties and was joined by Visayas bloc leader Negros Occidental Rep.-elect Alfredo Albee Benitez, formerly of the LP; and Camarines Sur Rep.-elect Rolando Andaya of the Lakas-Andaya majority wing, as new members of PDP-Laban.
Zamora is being touted as the next House Majority Leader to replace the Liberal’s House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II with former Davao City Rep. Anton Lagdameo, also known as the Banana King, as House Secretary General vice Secretary General Marilyn Barua-Yap.
Lagdameo, who did not run for any post, opted to focus on the campaign of Duterte and independent vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Andaya, once a loyal lieutenant of Belmonte, was negotiating with Alvarez to head the powerful House committee on appropriations, which he headed during the Arroyo regime.
