{"id":222101,"date":"2019-07-08T21:56:47","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T01:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=222101"},"modified":"2019-07-08T21:56:47","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T01:56:47","slug":"houses-privilege-to-choose-speaker-despite-endorsement-prrd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/08\/houses-privilege-to-choose-speaker-despite-endorsement-prrd\/","title":{"rendered":"House\u2019s privilege to choose speaker despite endorsement: PRRD"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte gives the thumbs up while delivering his speech during the mass oath taking of newly appointed government officials at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on July 8, 2019. ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Despite his endorsement, President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday night said that it was still the privilege of the House of Representatives to elect the next speaker.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier announced his endorsement for Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco as the next speakers of the House of Representatives under a term-sharing agreement.<\/p>\n

He said Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, also a House speaker bet, would be the next Majority Leader in the lower chamber.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is their privilege actually. I was just trying to end up the impasse. Nobody was sure to vote for whom and they kept on asking\u00a0ano \u2018yung — sino \u2018yung kandidato ni Presidente<\/em>\u00a0(who\u2019s the President\u2019s candidate)?\u201d Duterte said in a chance interview with reporters after the oath-taking of newly appointed officials in Malaca\u00f1an Palace.<\/p>\n

The chief executive explained that as much as he wanted to distance himself from having to select who to endorse, he decided it was time for him to speak out since there was no clear concession yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI shied away and said\u00a0na, \u2018Iyan oh.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0(There). If you can resolve the matter comfortably between you, do it. I hate to intrude. But apparently, considering what happened in the last few days, and\u00a0malapit na ang<\/em>\u00a0(the next session is about to begin) session,\u00a0sabi ko na<\/em>\u00a0my statement would really be, \u2018It\u2019s time for me to talk,\u2019\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Duterte, meanwhile, bared his reason for choosing to endorse Cayetano, who will serve as speaker in the first 15 months, and Velasco, who will be speaker during the next 21 months.<\/p>\n

He said Cayetano, who was his running mate in the 2016 national elections, expressed his desire to be house speaker during the mid-term polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been very clear on that\u00a0na<\/em>\u00a0during the campaign,\u00a0sabi niya kung manalo siya, gusto niya mag-<\/em>speaker (If he wins, he wants to be speaker). He was the first one at least to intimate to me that —\u00a0nagpasa na gusto<\/em>\u00a0(expressed his desire),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He explained that aside from Cayetano, two other allies, Velasco and Romualdez also approached him with the same concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen Lord, that is du — that was during the campaign. After the campaign,\u00a0pumasok ito si<\/em>\u00a0Martin Romualdez (Martin Romualdez entered), also a supporter of mine,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I promised him. Then Lord (Velasco),\u00a0sabi ko<\/em>\u00a0(I said), \u2018Let us see.\u2019\u00a0Kay<\/em>\u00a0Romualdez\u00a0sabi ko<\/em>\u00a0(I said), \u2018Let us see what develops,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte said that since there were three people vying for the speakership post, he decided it was time for him to step in.<\/p>\n

\u201cPagka ganito<\/em>\u00a0(When it\u2019s like this), it\u2019s time for me to talk. I will insist\u00a0na kung anong \u2018yung pinag-usapan natin, \u2018yon ang sundin natin<\/em>(whatever it is we talked about, that\u2019s what we follow),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that the term-sharing agreement was what was \u201cagreed upon\u201d to do away with conflict.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he said he did not endorse Davao City 3rd District Rep. Isidro Ungab because he did not get to meet him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not talk to him.\u00a0Ang nakausap ko lang si<\/em>\u00a0Martin,\u00a0si<\/em>\u00a0Lord,\u00a0pati si<\/em>\u00a0Cayetano (I only spoke to Martin, Lord and Cayetano),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Ungab is being endorsed by Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), a regional party co-founded by the President’s daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Z. Duterte.<\/p>\n

Duterte defended his decision to step in the house speakership race, noting that it should not be described as \u201cinterference\u201d because it did not involve meddling in the legislative process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has nothing to do with the independence of the legislative body. Up to that point, it’s all politics. But interfering in the legislation and in the workings of the Lower House,\u00a0ibang istorya ‘yon<\/em>\u00a0(that\u2019s another story),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are not interfering because we are choosing only the leaders. Now, when they begin to work and do their task, and you interfere, that’s the time that there is — we can hear the complaints,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Despite his endorsement, President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday night said that it was still the privilege of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":222102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222103,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222101\/revisions\/222103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}