Minority sets leadership caucus

MANILA, Philippines—Quezon Rep. and Deputy Minority Leader Danilo Suarez will hold a caucus of allies of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to firm up his bid to take control of the minority bloc in the House of Representatives.

Zambales Rep. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay confirmed the holding of a minority caucus which should settle the leadership row between Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and Suarez a day before Congress resumes sessions on Monday.

In a phone interview, Lagman said he was not aware of any minority caucus and that he was confident he would remain as the minority leader despite what he described as a plot by Arroyo to oust him and replace him with her “loyal traveling companion” Suarez.

“I don’t think he will get the numbers,” said Lagman, referring to Suarez’s claim that at least 19 of the 29 House minority members supported the Quezon representative’s bid to become the next minority leader.

Suarez has insisted that Arroyo merely wanted Lagman to honor a term-sharing agreement they entered into at the start of the 15th Congress in July 2010, by which Suarez would take over as Minority Leader in the latter half of the three-year term.

Any leadership change in the minority bloc should be carried by a majority vote of its 29 members and the outcome is to be relayed during the plenary session on Monday.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that as far as the House was concerned, Lagman would be the minority leader until Suarez comes up with a resolution signed by majority of the minority bloc members voting him as their leader.

The leadership dispute in the minority has come at an inopportune time when its leader, Arroyo, has been placed under hospital arrest on electoral sabotage charges filed by the Department of Justice and the Commission on Elections with the Pasay City regional trial court.