Two party-list representatives resign from House

Two members of the House of Representatives resigned from post Monday evening.

The reason for the resignations of 1-Tahanan Party-list Representative Nathaniel Oducado and Pinoy Workers Party-list Representative Franz Legazpi were not stated during the plenary session.

As a result of the resignation, Deputy Speaker Yasser Balindong, the presiding officer during Monday's plenary session, ordered House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil to remove Oducado and Legazpi from the roll of House members.

As of Tuesday, May 19, Oducado and Legazpi’s names were already removed from the House website.

Oducado and Legazpi were among the 257 members of the House who voted for the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.

COMPLETE LIST: How congressmen voted in VP Sara Duterte's impeachment

In a post on his social media account, Oducado said he resigned due to personal reasons, "chief among them my health and my family."

"These are not small things. They are, in truth, the most important things, and they deserve my full attention," he said.

"I have always believed that public service is a privilege, not a permanent station to which one is entitled to. There comes a time when one must recognize that serving well also means knowing when to step aside and that it is wrong, even selfish, to cling to a position," he added.

He expressed confidence that the advocacies of the party-list will not end with his departure and whoever takes his place will carry forward the same commitment that brought 1Tahanan to Congress in the first place.

In a separate interview, Oducado said that some of the constituents of 1-Tahanan Party-list informed him that they were unhappy about his vote in favor of the impeachment of the Vice President.

“I can say that our supporters, specifically from Cebu and Mindanao…because in Cebu we got around 118,000 votes and in Mindanao almost 100,000…medyo frustrated sila. In fact, I've been getting several messages, PM, not only by people online but also my friends who really asked me what happened with my vote,” he told reporters.

Oducado, however, said he has no regrets over his vote.

“As leaders, we have to stand by difficult decisions. It's one of the things that I have made peace with when I decided to run for this position,” he added.

Meanwhile, Commission on Elections chairperson George Garcia said resignation among party-list representatives is normal.

“Normal lang po itong pangyayari lalo na sa party-list. Kalimitan, inaasahan mo na laging may nagbibitiw, may aalis sa kanilang party-list,” Garcia told reporters in an interview.

(This is a normal occurrence, especially in party-list groups. It is usually expected that there will always be members who resign or leave their party-list.)

“Sa amin naman, nakasubmit ang listahan nila ng mga nominee at nakahanda si Comelec basta kung saka-sakali na mag-issue ng certification, vacancy, o pagtatanggal sa record ng pangalan ng naturang congressman kung sila ay nanalo,” he added.

(For our part, they have submitted their list of nominees, and the Comelec is ready in case it issues a certification of vacancy or removes the congressman’s name from the record if they win.)

For now, the poll body had only received the certificate of vacancy for Legazpi, Garcia said. —with a report from Mariel Celine Serquiña/AOL, GMA News