It will be a problem if Cayetano doesn’t honor term deal, Duterte says

The administration will have a problem in its hands if Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano decides to turn his back on the term-sharing agreement that President Rodrigo Duterte brokered between him and Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco before the 18th Congress convened earlier this year.

According to Marisol Abdurahman's report on "24 Oras", Duterte, nonetheless, said the issue remained hypothetical.

"I was there when we agreed. The three of us and I announced it after. If he doesn’t want to honor it, that’s his problem," Duterte said in an exclusive interview.

So it’s really going to be a problem?

"It is going to be a problem. So we will solve the problem when we are there. Wala pa naman eh. It remains to be hypothetical," Duterte said.

Some House members have raised the possibility of Cayetano going beyond the 15 months that he was to be Speaker as agreed in June. They adverted to Cayetano's trust ratings and performance as leader of the House.

Cayetano, for his part, said that he would follow what Duterte would want him to do after his 15 months as speaker is up.

Anakalusugan party-list Representative Michael Defensor, who chairs the House Committee on Public Accounts, last week said the term-sharing agreement may no longer be followed considering Cayetano's high trust and approval ratings.

Defensor said that while he did not campaign for Cayetano's speakership, the latter did a good job as Speaker of the House.

"Sa akin, for the benefit of national interest, the leadership of Speaker Alan Cayetano, Congressman Martin Romualdez, the chairmen of the different committees... they are all doing very well," Defensor said.

"So why would we change the direction and track of Congress and our country when we are doing well?" he added.

Cayetano said the House would have to vote for the next Speaker as a matter of procedure.

He made the clarification after Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte was quoted as saying that the House would vote on the term-sharing deal if Duterte did not intervene.

"Either way, magkakaroon ng botohan sa speakership because yun ang procedure. No one can take over by just saying na ikaw na next kasi wala namang vice speaker," Cayetano told reporters in an interview.

"But as I said, it's very unproductive and very speculative to talk about something na 15 months from now. And as far as I'm concerned, walang dapat ikabahala si Congressman Velasco dahil sinabi ko naman from the start na susundin ko ang utos ng ating Pangulo," he added. —NB, GMA News