MANILA – Taguig-Pateros representative Alan Peter Cayetano stays as House of Representatives’ speaker for now after majority of the lawmaker rejected his resignation offer yesterday.
Anak-Kalusugan partylist representative Mike Defensor motioned to reject Cayetano’s offer to relinquish his House speakership, a motion that was agreed upon by the majority via viva voce voting.
Prior to that, Cayetano said that he is willing to relinquish his House speakership to Marinduque representative Lord Alan Velasco if the latter can amass the much-needed votes from his colleagues.
“The speakership in this time of COVID is not about power. Aanhin mo ang power ngayon, namamatay ang mga tao?” Cayetano said. “I have always made it clear that I will abide by the wisdom of President Rodrigo Duterte.”
“It’s true na dapat hindi ka magpalit ng kapitan sa gitna ng laban. But it’s also true na may co-pilot ka naman. It’s also true basta tama ang direksyon at may GPS ka naman, pwede naman iba. I am not indispensable. You can make me leave anytime,” he added.
Under an earlier term-sharing agreement for the speakership last year, Cayetano leads the House for the first 15 months of the 18th Congress, while Velasco will assume leadership for the last 21 months.
However, President Duterte has appealed to Velasco, according to Cayetano, to delay the agreed term-sharing agreement for the sake of the passage of 2021 national budget but Velasco rejected.
“More than three or four times pinakiusapan ni Pangulo si Cong. Velasco na sa December na ang palitan alang-alang sa bansa, sa budget. I saw the pain in the President’s heart. I saw the burden,” Cayetano said./PN
