Cayetano, Paolo Duterte meet amid House speakership issue

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano flew to Davao City to meet with the son of President Rodrigo Duterte and Deputy Speaker Paolo amid the seething speakership issue grappling the House of Representatives.

In a series of photos posted by ACT-CIS party-list Representative Eric Yap on Instagram late Saturday night, Cayetano was seen meeting with Duterte over dinner.

LOOK: Speaker Cayetano and wife, Taguig Rep. Lani Cayetano visit Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte in Davao City, as shown in these photos posted by House appro chair Eric Yap on Instagram. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/J9bn4X60VR

— Erwin Colcol (@erwincolcol) September 27, 2020

Also with them were Yap himself, Cayetano's wife Representative Lani Cayetano of Taguig City, and House Deputy Secretary General Brian Yamsuan.

Yap captioned the first set of photos: "Chillax night."

In another post, where the lawmakers posed in front of a swimming pool, Yap wrote the caption: "Happy Sunday."

Yap has yet to respond to GMA News Online for additional information regarding the meeting.

The gathering took place about a week after Duterte confirmed sending a text message to lawmakers saying that he would ask the Mindanao Bloc to declare the Speaker and Deputy Speaker positions vacant amid issues involving budgetary allocations for the legislative districts of congressmen.

"The text message that I sent to another lawmaker — and is now making the rounds — was an expression of my personal dismay upon hearing the concerns of my fellow lawmakers," he said.

The motion was supposed to be made during the House's plenary session on September 21, but the said session ended with no move to declare House leadership seats vacant.

Although numerous lawmakers had called to tell him their concerns over their districts' budget allocations, Duterte maintained that he does not want to get involved in the ongoing budgetary squabbles.

Meanwhile, Cayetano said he is willing to step down from his post if his fellow lawmakers no longer want him as their leader.

He nevertheless accused Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco and his camp of being behind the supposed coup attempt.

Cayetano and Velasco have a standing term-sharing agreement in which the former would hold the speakership for 15 months and the latter would take over to finish the next 21 months.

The House of Representatives is set to begin its plenary deliberations on the 2021 General Appropriations Bill this week. —LBG, GMA News