Suarez claims votes to oust Lagman

Quezon Representative Danilo Suarez on Monday claimed victory in his bid to replace Albay Representative Edcel Lagman as House minority leader after receiving the votes of a majority of the House minority bloc in a caucus just hours before the resumption of Congress sessions.

Suarez, however, declined to say how many voted for him.

“I have obtained the necessary signatures to enforce a term-sharing agreement. We are just waiting for Edcel to verify them before making the manifestation on the floor,” said Suarez in a phone interview.

The House session was suspended at 6:30 Monday night with Lagman not yet yielding his post to Suarez.

Lagman said he was surprised by Suarez’s announcement because they had a gentleman’s agreement not to speak to the press until he had verified the votes cast for Suarez.

Lagman said he was still verifying if Suarez did obtain the majority vote to replace him. Lagman claimed that he counted at least five “double votes” (votes for both Lagman and Suarez), two votes made by unqualified members who had moved to the majority, and one vote cast through a phone call.

Suarez, however, was confident that he would be named the new House minority leader based on a term-sharing  agreement he and Lagman entered into at the start of the 15th Congress in July 2010.

He said that during Monday’s meeting, one of the minority members confronted Lagman and asked the latter to yield the post after he promised to do so once Suarez obtained the necessary votes.