The presidential daughter's political party, Hugpong ng Pagbabago, on Tuesday, denounced the ouster of Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab as chairman of the House appropriations committee.
The HNP, formed as a regional political party by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte in 2018, was established to support her father, President Rodrigo Duterte.
HNP had endorsed Ungab to be Speaker of the House in 2019, but he lost to Alan Peter Cayetano, who had agreed to a term-sharing arrangement with Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco.
Ungab was replaced as chairman of the powerful appointments committee by ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Yap, in a sudden shakeup amid talk that Velasco was engineering a coup for the top House post—a charge he denied.
READ: House divided amid coup plot
In a surprise move in plenary session Monday, Deputy Majority Leader Jesus Crispin Remulla—Cayetano’s party-mate in the Nacionalista Party, stood on the floor to announce the changes in the committee chairmanships, including Ungab’s post.
The HNP in its statement said Ungab’s removal from the committee “was grossly unacceptable as it is disadvantageous to the Duterte administration’s reform agenda for the Filipino people and the country.”
It also commended Ungab for “being a good soldier of President Rodrigo Duterte and for doing his job with pride and principle.”
The changes in the committee chairmanships Tuesday came on the heels of Cayetano’s disclosure that Velasco was out to remove him as Speaker.
Under the term-sharing agreement brokered by President Duterte, Velasco is supposed to assume the speakership in October.
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte dismissed the claim of Oriental Mindoro Rep. Paulino Salvador Leachon that he made P6 billion worth of insertions in the 2020 General Appropriations Act.
In a statement, Villafuerte said Leachon, who was removed as chairman of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET), was just making “bogus” claims against him as he could not even identify which of the House leader’s projects were supposedly riddled with congressional pork.
“First, he said I had P10 billion worth of pork-barrel projects. Now he is saying P6 billion worth of projects. Probably he’ll say P8 billion or P4 billion tomorrow, just to have something preposterous to say against me,” said Villafuerte, who represents the Second District of Camarines Sur.
“This is a complete lie. In the first place, the project he is talking about—the provincial capitol—is incorporated in CamSur’ development agenda and had gone through the standard vetting process, including the approval by the provincial development council,” he added.
Leachon, a supporter of Velasco, lost the chairmanship of the chamber’s contingent to the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal following a spat with Villafuerte over the speakership issue.
Cayetano said Velasco would assume the speakership if President Duterte says so.
“This is my message to him: Let us focus on our job as legislators. Let us put aside differences and not intrigue. Do not be afraid that you will not become Speaker because if that is the President’s wish it will happen because he is the head of our coalition,” Cayetano said in Filipino.
Cayetano said last week that Velasco was out to remove him as Speaker as 20 congressmen have been offered by Velasco committee chairmanships and fund allocations in exchange for their support in unseating him as Speaker.
Cayetano met with lawmakers from the Nacionalista Party and the National Union Party Monday evening where they discussed “the direction and reforms” he has initiated as Speaker.
“It is simple: they like direction, they like the reforms. I am here to continue to serve,” he said.
At the start of the current Congress, Cayetano and Velasco were the strongest rivals for the speakership, and it took President Duterte to broker an agreement under which Cayetano was supposed to sit for first 15 months and Velasco for the remaining 21 months.
But NUP, the first political party to support Cayetano’s speakership bid last year, said the majority of the members of the administration coalition in the House are happy with Cayetano, who made sure that everyone is treated equally, said Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr.
“Why rock the boat? Congressmen are happy with Speaker Alan’s leadership,” said Barzaga, NUP president. “The Speaker does not even have to offer them anything to ensure their loyalty.”
Barzaga said he believes Cayetano’s claim that Velasco had plotted to unseat him, saying he was aware that some of his colleagues were offered positions in exchange for their support.
He said he himself did not receive any offer to jump ship, however.
“As you know, the members of the House are very secretive. You’d think they are on your side when they are already on the opposite side,” Barzaga said.
Barzaga said the Speaker equitably distributed chairmanship positions to all the political parties who supported him “and he was expecting that there would be loyalty, and stability in the House in order that the President’s legislative agenda would push through.”
Since there was no battle for the speakership last year, the senior lawmaker said the Speaker had to allocate all the positions, especially committee chairmanships, to all members of the coalition based on their political parties.
“As a matter of fact, there are so many deputy speakers and this was done by the Speaker in order that there will be stability insofar as his position is concerned, which is of course, necessary for effective legislation,” Barzaga said.
The Palace on Tuesday played down the leadership changes in the House, saying President Duterte’s legislative agenda will not be affected.
“I don’t think it will affect the legislative agenda of the President. They all support the agenda of the President,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a briefing.
The looming rift between supporters of Cayetano and Velasco would not affect the legislature’s support for the President.
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