MANILA, Philippines — “160 more or less.”
A key ally of Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco on Sunday claimed that the presumptive Speaker-in-waiting had secured the backing of more than half of the 300-member chamber, which, if true, could upend the brewing battle for the House leadership.
“160 more or less. The members are now realizing the real state of Congress and its members,” Oriental Mindoro Rep. Salvador Leachon said when asked by the Inquirer about how many House members had committed to joining Velasco’s fold.
The Speaker’s camp, however, could take comfort in the 184-1 vote last Wednesday when the House summarily rejected Cayetano’s offer of resignation in what his loyalists characterized as the consummation of the 15-21 term-sharing deal. A previous manifesto was also circulated with 203 members expressing support for the Taguig lawmaker’s continued reign.
But Leachon, a stalwart of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan who has been championing Velasco’s candidacy, suggested that the situation was now quite fluid.
He cited a number of factors causing disenchantment in the House, including “issues of inequity of treatment and [a] senselessly vindictive attitude towards those who don’t align with their manner of management.”
“That they want change. That’s the principal reason why many are starting to jump ship. Not to mention that it’s really the right to do to abide by everyone’s palabra de honor (word of honor),” he said in a Viber message.
Leachon warned Cayetano of “unnoticed growing resentment” in the majority coalition as a result of the House power struggle compounded by dissatisfaction with the inequitable allocation of funds in the 2021 budget.