Velasco links Cayetano's actions to 'personal ambition' in 2022

Speaker Alan Cayetano is refusing to yield the Speakership in defiance of an agreement he was part of because of his "personal ambition" to be President in 2022, Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco said Friday.

Velasco made the allegation two days after Cayetano moved to approve the proposed P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 and subsequently adjourn the session until November 16 — a departure from the October 14 timeline of budget approval on third and final reading that Cayetano’s leadership set.

Cayetano’s move extended his Speakership tenure that was supposed to end on October 14 as he agreed upon with President Rodrigo Duterte and Velasco, the other party in the term-sharing deal. House rules provide that Congress must be in session to approve a pending measure and for anybody to move to declare a post — including the Speakership — vacant.

“He is fighting for personal interest and ambition. Akalain mo ba naman, guluhin niya iyong buong budget process. Why? Out of fear. Speaker Cayetano is doing everything to be able to achieve his personal ambition and interes na maging Presidente ng 2022,” Velasco said in an ANC interview.

“Pandemic [ngayon], we are looking at the survival of our country. Inuuna muna niya ang kanyang political survival before the survival of our country,” he added.

Cayetano was Duterte's running-mate in the 2016 polls. While Duterte won by a landslide with 16 million votes, he finished a far third with 5.9 million votes behind then-Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. with 14.1 million votes and Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo with 14.3 million votes.

Duterte, on Thursday night, gave Cayetano and Velasco an ultimatum to resolve the Speakership row especially since the approval of next year's national budget -- the first national budget to figure in the COVID-19 pandemic -- is on the line.

Both the camps of Velasco and Cayetano have claimed that they have numbers on their side.

Velasco’s allies were supposed to move to declare the Speakership vacant on October 14, but this was scuttled with Cayetano’s maneuver of adjourning the session after the second-reading approval of the budget.

Velasco, however, is confident that the House will be able to open session as long as the majority wants it.

“We can change the rules as long as the majority wants it,” he said.

“Even if the session is closed, if the majority wants to open the session, they can open the session,” Velasco added.

Meanwhile, in a statement Friday, Velasco reiterated his earlier call on his House colleagues to open the session in accordance with President Duterte’s wish for a national budget bill passage.

“We welcome President Duterte’s call for a transparent, equitable and just spending package for 2021. This will only materialize if Congress heeds the Chief Executive’s appeal to pass the budget legally and constitutionally. We reiterate our call to follow the legislative calendar which was disrupted by the events of October 6, 2020,” Velasco said.

“Let us reopen the doors of the House of Representatives for the resumption of plenary debates on the proposed budget.”

As for Cayetano, Velasco said the Speaker should stand on the right side of history.

"The ball is in his court. He can either be a part of the solution or be a problem," he said.

GMA News Online has reached out to the Office of Speaker Cayetano and at least two of his allies, but they have yet to reply as of posting time.— KBK/RSJ, GMA News