Sandro: No Palace hand in House leadership change

Leyte Representative Martin Romualdez offered to resign as Speaker to spare the institution from allegations of involvement in anomalous government flood control projects, House Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Representative Sandro Marcos said Wednesday.

Sandro made the response when asked if his father, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., asked Romualdez to step aside given that the former Speaker was linked to anomalous flood control projects by contractor spouses Curlee and Sarah Discaya.

Romualdez has since denied the allegations.

“First of all, it was not a matter of being chosen by Malacañang. He (Romualdez) offered to step down,” the younger Marcos told reporters.

Asked if members of the House lost trust on Romualdez amid the flood control controversy, Sandro replied, “He (Romuladez) had the numbers. Simple lang ‘yun. Kung nasa iyo yung numero, (It’s simple. If you have the numbers) you have the speakership. He had the numbers.”

Congressman Marcos then said that with Romualdez stepping back as Speaker, members of the majority coalition did consultations as to who should replace Romualdez, and Isabela Rep. Faustino “Bojie” Dy emerged as their pick.

“Aside from that [offering of the former Speaker to resign], Congressman Toby [Tiangco] said ayaw niya, and Cong Albee gave way for Bojie Dy. How this works is of course, it's a game of numbers. The magic number being 158,” Marcos said.

“Kinausap at tinanong po namin ang mga party leaders kung sino sa tingin nila ang pwede maging Speaker kapalit ni Speaker Martin Romualdez. The Speaker serves at the pleasure of the majority, at ang pangalan na lumabas lagi ay ang pangalan po ni Congressman Bojie Dy,” Marcos added.

(We talked with party-leaders and asked them who should replace Speaker Romualdez.)

He was referring to Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco and Bacolod City Rep. Albee Benitez who did not vote for Romualdez for Speaker when the First Regular Session of the 20th Congress opened last July 28.

The Majority coalition in the House is composed of the Lakas-CMD led by Romualdez, National Unity Party, Nacionalista Party, Nationalist Peoples Coalition and the Party-list Coalition Foundation Inc. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News