Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon believes that President Rodrigo Duterte may have had knowledge of the plan to change in the leadership at the House of Representatives.
This, if the reports were true that the President’ daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio had a hand in the ouster of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
“I don’t think Mayor Sarah would work on the change of the leadership without, at the very least, the knowledge of the President,” Drilon said at a regular weekly forum in the Senate.
“That is the reality that we face. That is not only true today, that is also true for the past administrations and Congresses,” he added.
When talks of Sara allegedly calling House members to support the ouster bid against Alvarez, Drilon said, congressmen assumed that it had clearance from the President.
“Such a major political move, the congressmen assumed, could only be done with the clearance of the President. That is a reality more in the House and even in the Senate,” Drilon said.
“Walang naniniwala na magkakaroon pagbabago ng liderato sa Kamara de Representante kung walang basbas ng Pangulo ng Pilipinas,” he added.
“When calls were made by Mayor Sarah, the congressmen assumed that this was with the authority of the President,” Drilon pointed out.
Until now, however, no congressman has confirmed that the mayor had called to ask them to support Alvarez’s ouster.
Alvarez was replaced by former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in a surprise move made just minutes before the President Duterte’s State of the Nation Address last Monday. /vvp