NPC wants House speaker term-sharing deal followed

The Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) wants the term-sharing agreement between House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco to be followed, Rizal Rep. Michael John Duavit said Friday.

"I would say that we are solid based on our last meeting. For us, simple lang eh: we held our end of the bargain and the person that we deal with should abide by their end of the bargain also," the congressman told reporters.

He stressed the importance of "trust and confidence" in a large collegiate body like the House of Representatives.

"If a person cannot hold up his end of the bargain, then it would be very difficult to work with a person like that," Duavit said.

Under the term-sharing agreement brokered by no less than President Rodrigo Duterte, Cayetano would be speaker for 15 months and Velasco would take over in the succeeding 21 months.

Cayetano said that Duterte asked Velasco to delay the turnover of the speakership to December to give way to ongoing budget deliberations. He claimed that Velasco refused.

On September 30, Cayetano offered to resign, but the House quickly rejected the offer through a vote.

Days later, the House approved on second reading the proposed P4.5 trillion national budget for 2021 and suspended the session until November 16, which means there could be no turnover of the speakership on the expected date, October 14.

Amid the speakership row, a number of lawmakers lost leadership positions, including NPC member Quezon Rep. Helen Tan, who chaired the health committee.

Duavit said Friday that the NPC is "very disappointed" by Tan's removal, saying she is a "highly performing representative."

"We see no other reason for taking her out rather than politics," he said.

He also said the NPC supports the resumption of the session.

“We’ve had indications from two of our members that are very highly compromised health-wise, but other than that I think everyone is going to be here in Manila and ready to go,” Duavit said. — DVM, GMA News