THE speakership row has only held hostage the debates on passage of the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Act, lawmakers said on Thursday.
But Anakalusugan Rep. Mike Defensor has quickly assured President Duterte and the public that Congress will approve the proposed P4.5-trillion national budget on time.
“We can pass it on second reading, as the leadership has promised, before we go on our first recess on October 17 despite the recent events,” Defensor said.
In an interview, PBA Party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles, a member of the House Committee on Economic Affairs, said the nominal voting process on Speaker Cayetano’s sudden offer to resign was only a waste of Legislative time. Following the Wednesday speech of Cayetano, the plenary decided to suspend the plenary budget deliberations until this Friday.
Nograles lamented that the furor sparked by Cayetano’s move had no good impact.
“In fact, today, October 1 we are feeling the repercussions of yesterday’s [Wednesday] action because the hearings today are also suspended. It will resume on Friday,” he added.
“We lost a day-and-a-half in budget deliberations in the time of Covid,” he added. According to Nograles, the nominal voting process for the motion to reject Cayetano’s offer is not stipulated in their rules.
He said nothing there calls for an offer of resignation.
Under the rules, he added any officer of the House may resign and it is their personal choice, “It is not up to the body and not up to the Congress and to the plenary to decide on the action of any officer.”
“I did not cast a vote on the motion of Rep. Mike Defensor in rejecting the offer of resignation of Speaker Cayetano. You see, in Congress, there are four ways in voting: Yes, no, abstain, not casting a vote. Yesterday, I chose not to participate in the voting at all because I found it a little absurd to vote on an offer to resign.” he said.
“I think, our colleagues did feel that way. You can ask everyone individualy about it and you can see of the numbers alone with 299 members, only 180 members responded to the poll and I think that is a very significant number,” he said.
Also, Nograles said the matter of resignation is a personal choice and not of the body.
“Offering to resign and actually resigning are actually two different actions? Cayetano did not resign? Absolutely, Cayetano did not resign. According to our rules, Speaker of the House of Rep may resign and upon his resignation from the office creates an immediate vacancy,” he added.
“When there is an immediate vacancy, our rules dictate that any of the Deputy Speakers upon voting among themselves will serve as acting Speaker of the House of Representatives, until such time that all the member of the House of Representatives will vote for a new Speaker,” he said.
Nograles said the term-sharing agreement was very clear and President Duterte just left the announcement to Cayetano.
“Everything else was bluff. Why didn’t you put on a motion to stop the process of votation and called for an out of order? Not allowed. Once voting, especially nominal voting has commenced, you cannot stop the voting,” he added.
Promise
REACTING to Cayetano’s speech, Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco said Cayetano promised the President he would honor the term-sharing agreement and resign on October 14.
“The President entrusted you with the task of announcing the date of the turnover. October 14 was chosen as the date for the turnover because we committed to pass the budget before October 14 and do nothing else that would disrupt or derail the process,” he said.
“Thank you for confirming this in your September 30 Privilege Speech and for sharing with the body that this is what we discussed during our meeting with the President—that you will resign on October 14 and that you will announce this yourself as a gentleman,” he added.
Velasco said the attacks against and distractions “serve no purpose other than to perpetuate what is a purely personal agenda threatening to delay the passage of the budget. This is the truth.”
“It is most unfortunate, therefore, that today, deliberations on the budget was suspended. Instead of focusing on the work at hand, further political maneuverings and theatrics took the budget deliberations hostage,” he added.
“We lost an entire day, and even tomorrow where you have declared that no session will be conducted, which are crucial in meeting our time line. These attacks and distractions serve no purpose other than to perpetuate what is a purely personal agenda threatening to delay the passage of the budget. This is the truth,” he said.
Meanwhile, Velasco urged lawmakers to work and pass the budget on or before October 14.
“I assure my peers that we will be a gracious leader who would listen and be responsive to your [lawmakers] concerns,” he added.
Image credits: AP/Aaron Favila