Cayetano: Duterte backs my bid to become House Speaker

Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday said that President Rodrigo Duterte supports his bid to become the next House speaker in the 18th Congress.

“I will not leave DFA unless it was OK with him,” Cayetano told reporters after the flag retreat ceremony at the department’s consular affairs office in Pasay City.

Cayetano is running as Congressman for Taguig in the mid-term elections in May next year and admitted gunning for the house speakership. Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations Teddy Locsin Jr. has been tapped to replace Cayetano.

“I asked for it and he (President Duterte) confirmed to me and he said, ‘Go,’” Cayetano said, adding he is scheduled to file his certificate of candidacy on Wednesday next week.

Cayetano, a former congressman and senator before assuming the post as Foreign Secretary, ran as Duterte’s running mate in the 2016 polls, but lost. He became Foreign Secretary in May 2017.

Cayetano said he decided to run again for a seat in the lower house after the President’s trip to Israel and Jordan.

He said he is confident of getting the leadership in the House, saying the President already gave him his blessing.

“As head of political party and as head of coalition the President decides who will get the support of the coalition. That’s the reality there. It’s a multiparty and there’s a number of party supporting the President. He has a decisive role,” Cayetano said.

Cayetano said Duterte was initially reluctant to let him go as DFA Chief, citing his remarkable achievements and the reforms he has instituted at the department constantly plagued by passport application scheduling woes.

“We have better passport services under my term, reducing the waiting time for an application appointment from three months to two weeks. And two weeks is no small feat,” he said.

Duterte, Cayetano said, yielded and promised to support him after their “heart-to-heart” talk where he informed him of his decision to run for Congress and to become speaker of the house.

Locsin nomination

Cayetano said Duterte also immediately accepted the nomination of Teddy Locsin Jr. when the envoy’s name was mentioned as a replacement.

“As soon as we said the name of Teddy Boy. he lightened up,” Cayetano said. “I think the attitude, direction, the thinking of the Secretary-designate is very the same. But I can guarantee you he even has better work ethics than me.”

Cayetano believes Locsin, a former journalist, lawmaker and a lawyer, is “tailor-fit” for the job.

“He is much more well-read, much more experienced, he was in the Cabinet of (former President) Cory Aquino, he was my dad’s law partner, he’s worked with two generations of Cayetanos,” he said.

“He will implement the President’s independent foreign policy, but I believe he will have his own approach and personality in applying independent foreign policy. I look forward to the great things he will do for the department and for the country.”

Former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario welcomed Locsin’s appointment at the DFA, saying his “multi-disciplined skills combined with personal conviction towards advancing our national interest at all times will be able to effectively move forward our nation’s defined foreign policy encompassing the promotion of our national security, enhancement of our economic diplomacy and the promotion of the welfare of our Filipinos overseas.”

“As a lawyer, journalist, businessman, politician and diplomat, Ambassador Locsin is known to be highly intelligent, articulate and independent-minded,” Del Rosario said in a statement.

Former Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Jesus Yabes, on the other hand, said Locsin is “highly qualified” for the post as his “intellectual prowess is of the highest caliber.”

“He is a prolific writer and intellectual historian that the DFA appears to have lacked these previous years. He is a staunch advocate of an independent Foreign Policy for our country,” Yabes said.

Cayetano said he will give Locsin a comprehensive briefing before officially handing over the reins of the DFA to him on Wednesday. —JST, GMA News