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Ruling party spells out demand to Speaker: Honor the agreement

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The ruling PDP-Laban on Sunday urged lawmakers to honor the term-sharing agreement that would have Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco replace Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano as speaker of the House later this month after the national budget is passed.

SAVED BY THE BELLE? House Speaker-in-waiting Rep. Lord Allan Velasco of Marinduque and presidential daughter Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio of Davao City meet over dinner Friday Oct. 9. Velasco is expected to become Speaker on Oct. 14 under a term-sharing agreement with the incumbent Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano of Taguig City.

"For the PDP-Laban, the party's stand remains unchanged for 15 months and can be summarized in three words: honor the agreement," a statement from the party said.

The ruling party said President Rodrigo Duterte, his daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio and the PDP-Laban leadership fully supported the gentleman's agreement brokered by the President, who is also chairman of the party.

The statement was issued after Velasco met with Duterte-Carpio in Davao City on Friday, Oct. 9.

GMA News Online shared a photo of Velasco at a dining table having a meal with Duterte-Carpio.

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Under the term-sharing agreement that Duterte brokered last year, Cayetano of the Nacionalista Party, was to serve as speaker for the first 15 months of the 18th Congress, then hand over the post to the PDP-Laban's Velasco, who would serve for the remaining 21 months.

As the deadline for the turnover approached, however, Cayetano seemed unwilling to give up his post—and his allies have been lobbying for his retention as speaker.

But Duterte-Carpio has endorsed Velasco as the next speaker "anytime this week but without interruption on the budget deliberation," his ally Oriental Mindoro 1st District Rep. Salvador Leachon said in a statement.

"Besides, she believes that parties to the term-sharing agreement must be gentleman enough to comply," Leachon said.

"Non-adherence to agreement is a defiance of (her) father, as I perceive any daughter would feel, and we can’t deny it because there can be no interpretation other than that," he added.

Leachon said the photo of Velasco's meeting with the Davao City mayor “says it all.”

Earlier, Cayetano, along with his wife Taguig City Rep. Lani Cayetano, House Deputy Secretary-General Brian Yamsuan and ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Eric Yap, met with presidential son and Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte also in Davao City.

Leachon believes Velasco's meeting with Sara was intended to end to the speakership row, which he said threatens the unity of Congress and sows disrespect toward the President's wishes, including his desire that the budget be passed on time.

Another Velasco ally, Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza said the President had “strongly rebuffed” Cayetano by calling for a four-day special session from Oct. 13 to 16.

Earlier, Cayetano had suspended session until Nov. 16 in what his critics said was an attempt to sabotage the term-sharing agreement.

“Malacañang has repudiated the Speaker, who is clearly drunk with power, and has become a huge embarrassment and liability to the President,” Atienza said.

“Congressman Cayetano has betrayed the President. He has also double-crossed all the House members who elected him as speaker in July last year based on the term-sharing agreement blessed by the President no less,” he added.

Cayetano’s “highly irregular” cancellation of House sessions until Nov. 16 “had imperiled the passage of the budget bill,” thus forcing the President’s hand, the party-list lawmaker said.

Cayetano abruptly called off House sessions because he was clearly not willing to step down on Oct. 14, he said.

“Through all sorts of political machinations, congressman Cayetano has shamelessly reneged on his solemn promise – made before the President – to step down as speaker after 15 months and give way to congressman Velasco,” he added.

On Oct. 9, the President called the House of Representatives to a special session from Oct. 13 to 16, a day after he warned that he would step in to solve the House leadership dispute that was stalling the approval of the budget bill.

Since Cayetano knew he could not muster enough votes on his own to get elected as speaker in July 2019, he agreed to the term-sharing pact with Velasco with the President acting as the go-between, Atienza said.

“Anybody who has doubts about the clarity of the conditions of the term-sharing should revisit the news videos of the President’s July 8, 2019 address in Malacañang, when he laid out the terms,” he said.

“The news videos are available online for all to see,” he said.

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