MANILA, Philippines — Albay Rep. Joey Salceda is firm in saying that the House leadership arrangement suggested by President Rodrigo Duterte will definitely “materialize” in next week’s Congress election.
“I can tell you, at the rate we’re working together, there is definitely no chance those arrangement will not materialize on Monday,” Salceda told reporters in a weekly media forum on Wednesday.
“We will have a Speaker, he’s called Alan [Taguig Rep.] Peter Cayetano, we will have a Majority Leader and he’s name is [Leyte Rep.] Martin Romualdez and we will have [Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco] as a support, depending on what committee he wants, or what position he wants,” he added.
Earlier, the President announced his endorsement of Cayetano as the next Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Duterte suggested a term-sharing arrangement between Cayetano, who would sit as House Speaker for 15 month, and Velasco who would take the remaining 21 months
Meanwhile Romualdez, another Speaker aspirant, would be the Majority Leader as per Duterte’s suggestion.
READ: Duterte pushes for Cayetano-Velasco term-sharing for Speaker
Despite the President’s leadership arrangement suggestion for the House, Salcedo maintains that the lower chamber of Congress remains independent.
“Independent in a sense that out of the 30 major national laws, only five were SONA (State of the Nation Address) commitment, 25 were essentially initiatives of the House. That doesn’t make us independent?” he said. /muf