‘HOUSE IN CRISIS’: Lawmaker says leadership row disruptive

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

An Ilonggo member of the House of Representatives on Thursday admitted that the lower chamber is “in crisis” amid the leadership row between House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano (Taguig-1st) and Representative Lord Allan Jay Velasco (Mariduque-Lone).

At the beginning of the 18th Congress in 2019, Cayetano and Velasco drafted a term-sharing agreement with President Rodrigo Duterte as a witness.

It was a “15-21” agreement, where Cayetano would serve as House Speaker for 15 months, and Velasco would succeed him for the remaining 21 months of the Congress.

Things came to a head late September when the topic of the expiry of Cayetano’s tenure was brought up amid deliberations on the General Appropriations Bill for 2021.

According to the agreement, Velasco would succeed Cayetano on Oct 14, 2020.

The heat turned up on Oct 6, when Cayetano suspended the House’s session shortly after passing the P4.5-trillion 2021 budget on second reading.

The legislative calendar agreed upon by both the House and the Senate indicated that the session was supposed to adjourn on Oct 17.

The House instead would resume the session for the third reading of the appropriations bill on Nov 16.

This also effectively blocked the efforts by Velasco and his allies to call for a vote on the Speakership.

Three of Velasco’s known allies – Reps. Sharon Garin (AAMBIS-OWA Party List), Eric Martinez (Valenzuela City-2nd), and Helen Tan (Quezon City-4th) – were stripped of their committee chairmanships, another effect of the leadership bout.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Thursday blasted Cayetano for the suspension of the House’s session and the Speaker’s pronouncements on the budget.

Rep. Lorenz Defensor (Iloilo-3rd) told Aksyon Radyo Iloilo that the conflict in the House leadership was “disruptive”.

“The congressmen are not the only ones affected, but all Filipinos, because according to the Congress’ calendar, we have to finish the 2021 budget of the country on third and final reading by October 14. Clearly, there will be a delay in the submission of the General Appropriations Bill to the Senate. What would be the effect of that with the Senate? The Senators have said that they expect a delay in the approval of the budget for 2021, and that would be bad for everyone,” Defensor said in a radio interview.

Defensor added that if the 2021 national budget would not be passed on time, this year’s budget would have to be re-enacted.

He pointed out that this year’s budget did not have any provisions to respond to the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation.

Both houses of Congress, in an emergency session on March 24, passed Republic Act No. 11469 (Bayanihan to Heal as One Act) in response to the possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A significant part of Rep. Act No. 11469 was the re-allocation of several portions of the 2020 national budget for COVID-19 response.

The law, which had expired in June, did not dictate if the same would be the case for a re-enacted budget in 2021.

“The budget for 2020 would have to be re-enacted, and the 2020 budget did not have COVID-19 response provisions which should help the government in its programs and projects to stop the pandemic, especially for the Department of Health, Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department of Labor and Employment,” Defensor explained.

He continued to describe the current situation in the lower chamber as “divisive”.

“This is very divisive for all the members of the House of Representatives. We want to be united in passing the 2021 budget. If you believe it or not, we all supported Speaker Cayetano from the time he was elected, and we supported his budgets. But right now, some officials who have helped him in this term have been stripped of their positions,” he said.

On a scale of 1 to 10, he said that the seriousness of the current situation in the House was at a “7”.

“I am not discounting the chance that this will be resolved, but right now this is serious, this is a 7 for me. Seven is serious especially at the time that you are passing the budget, and we may not see a clear way for us to discuss and debate the budget right now. This is very serious, and I hope the House leadership will have another chance to sit down, discuss this, and pass the 2021 budget.”

He added that infrastructure projects for districts in provincial areas all over the country would be affected, while slightly lauding Cayetano for pushing their inclusion in the budget.

“If you look at the budget, there are other congressmen who complained that other colleagues close to the leadership got bigger budgets, and it can be seen that their parts are not fit [for the projects]. I’m very happy that Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, before this issue divided the House, told the members of the majority that he would seek an equitable distribution for all districts in the provinces in the country,” he said.

The House minority, according to Defensor, has also been deprived of the chance to debate the line-item provisions in the 2021 budget because of the abrupt suspension.

“The minority plays a very important role in having a check-and-balance Congress. When we are no longer in the plenary, where the minority is very active in scrutinizing our budget, especially the members of Makabayan bloc, they are deprived of the platform to express their objections to the line items in the 2021 budget,” Defensor said.

He also lamented the effects of the Cayetano-Velasco rift, especially to the removal of Garin, Martinez, and Tan from their positions.

Garin on Wednesday also expressed her shock at her removal, saying she had been supportive of Cayetano’s legislative agenda.

The Party-List Coalition Foundation, Inc., a group of 54 party-list representatives belonging to the House majority, on Monday expressed their dismay on the removal of Rep. Michael Romero (1-PACMAN Party List) as Deputy Speaker.

“We want to see the 2021 budget passed. We do not want to see, especially at this critical time to pass the budget, it would create deep scars if we vote on them. It’s not good to strip positions from those who have helped us in the Congress, especially from Speaker Cayetano. The people who aren’t involved and many of us in the Congress wanted to leave it to Speaker Cayetano and Lord Velasco to settle their differences with the President. Those who were stripped of their positions, their party will surely be affected, especially if their replacements are not from their party,” Defensor said.

He said that the President does wield influence in the Speakership row, stressing the need for Duterte to make clear pronouncements on the House speakership, whether or not the term-sharing agreement should be continued.

“We cannot avoid the fact that in any Congress, the President has influence. This ’15-21’ sharing agreement happened because the President endorsed it and Speaker Cayetano and Lord Velasco agreed to it. It is correct that even though at this time, it’s not good to see the President having influence, but he can influence this, and he can unite the House of Representatives at this time that the two congressmen cannot agree at this time,” he said.