Imee, Imelda, solons gather at Sara’s ‘thank-you lunch’ for Arroyo

Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, her mother Imelda Marcos, and Davao del Norte Representative Antonio Floirendo Jr. were among the guests at the lunch thrown by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio for new Speaker of the House Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Monday.

The event, held at a hotel in Quezon City, was apparently the mayor's way of thanking lawmakers for supporting Arroyo, who supplanted Floirendo nemesis and fellow Davao del Norte Representative Pantaleon Alvarez as Speaker last week.

"It was a thank-you lunch hosted by the mayor to thank the members of Congress who supported the new Speaker. Just about that," Quezon Representative Danilo Suarez said in a report by Sandra Aguinaldo on 24 Oras.

Arroyo was installed as the new House leader on July 23, moments before President Rodrigo Duterte's third State of the Nation Address was supposed to begin, leading to a delay of the President's speech by more than an hour.

Duterte-Carpio was rumored to have been behind the "coup" that ousted Alvarez, with whom she locked horns over her establishment of the regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP).

"Well, you can just add one plus one. It's up to you," Suarez told reporters about the rumor.

Also present at the lunch were Davao City Representative Karlo Nograles, Zamboanga Sibugay Representative Wilter "Sharky" Wee Palma, Camarines Sur Representative LRay Villafuerte, 1-PACMAN party-list Representative Michael Romero, SBP party-list Representative RJ Belmonte, and former Leyte Representative Martin Romualdez.

According to the 24 Oras report, Arroyo was the first to leave the gathering. "It was just a thank-you lunch," she said.

At the event, Duterte-Carpio also met with party-list representatives and local government officials from Mindanao.

"The mayor addressed the partylists in a separate venue kasi ang daming pockets of meetings, eh...There were meetings with the heads of different political parties like the NPC, NUP, NP," said Suarez.

Camarines Sur Representative and new House majority leader Rolando Andaya earlier said that several lawmakers belonging to the ruling party PDP-Laban are considering transferring to the HNP, which Duterte-Carpio later denied.

The mayor also said that at the moment there is no decision yet on whether HNP will move to become a national party. — BM, GMA News