Sara Duterte rebuffs ‘counter-productive’ term-sharing for Speaker
MANILA, Philippines — Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has rejected the proposed term-sharing of House Speaker, noting that it will only be “counter-productive” and may “slow down” the remaining three years of the Duterte administration.
“In a term-sharing situation, the House of Representatives will be racked with unseating the incumbent Speaker, deceit, dissent, and distrust,” Duterte-Carpio said in a statement Friday.
“We do not know why the term-sharing influencers do not seem to care what will happen to the House. They just want to install a speaker and do not think about what comes after,” she added.
Duterte-Carpio stressed the lawmakers themselves should have the final say on the speakership row.
“Let us leave the speaker issue to the members of the House of Representatives and the political parties and that includes HNP (Hugpong ng Pagbabago) and HTL (Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod),” she said.
Earlier, the ruling PDP-Laban party agreed to a term-sharing deal, provided that their nominee, Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco sits as Speaker first as he has “already has an overwhelming number of members of Congress supporting him.”
READ: Speaker race: PDP-Laban open to term sharing, wants Velasco to sit first
This was after Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano revealed that President Rodrigo Duterte had pushed for a term-sharing agreement among the contenders for the top Congress post during their meeting in Japan.
READ: Duterte meets 3 bets for House Speaker in Tokyo
However, Cayetano said the deal did not push through as Velasco balked at the proposal. The President confirmed this last week, saying that the Marinduque lawmaker backed out at the “last minute.”
The initial term-sharing deal would have installed Cayetano as Speaker for the first 15 months and then Velasco for 21 months.
“Ano iyong… So ‘yan ang ano. Ito sabi ko. Maghati kayo ng term. Ang gusto ni Cayetano mauna siya. But he will stay there just for 15 months. That’s what he committed. Si … and Velasco can have the … the other half, which is not really as short as … 21 months,” Duterte told reporters in an interview in Malacañang.
“Sabihin ko mag-ano… Ganun ang proposal. Pumayag na si Cayetano but si Velasco mukhang last minute nag-back out,” he added. (Editor: Katherine G. Adraneda)
