MANILA, Philippines — Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco on Tuesday slammed Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and his allies for railroading the proposed 2021 national budget that led to the suspension of plenary sessions until November 16, saying he and his associates should be held accountable for their actions.
Just hours after the unexpected turn of events in the House plenary hall, which included the early approval of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) on second reading and the suspension of session until November 16, Velasco said the railroading of the proposed funding is contrary to the Speaker’s commitment “for a national spending package that is open, transparent and meaningful and beneficial for the Filipino people.”
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“As leader of the ruling PDP-Laban, which represents the biggest bloc of the Super Majority Coalition in Congress, we highly denounce the unilateral acts of Speaker Allan Peter Cayetano and his handful of allies in the House of Representatives that led to the hurried approval of the 2021 national budget without the going through the budget process stipulated in the Constitution and the suspension of the plenary session until November 16, 2020,” Velasco said in a statement.
According to Velasco, Cayetano and his allies railroaded the legislative process when they terminated the period of debates on the 2021 budget, pointing out that House members were not given ample time to scrutinize the budget of various important government agencies.
Velasco added that Cayetano also approved the GAB “on second reading without going through the required budget process and procedure—sponsorship, debate, amendments—and crucial discussion with government agencies.”
Suspension of session
The Marinduque lawmaker likewise said that Cayetano and his allies employed “a flawed procedure” to change the approved Calendar of Congress which states that the suspension of the session shall only be on October 17.
This “haphazard declaration”, Velasco said, violated the provisions of the Constitution on the inter-parliamentary courtesy.
Citing Section 16, Article 6 of the 1987 Constitution, Velasco said suspension for a “long period of time” should have the consent of the Senate.
“[Cayetano and his allies maneuvered] the House Rules and Calendar which is obviously an aftermath of Speaker Cayetano’s failure to secure the full support of President Duterte during our recent meeting and evade the October 14, 2020, peaceful transition of House Speakership to this representation based on the term-sharing agreement,” Velasco said.
Loss of confidence
Velasco said these “unilateral acts” of Cayetano “clearly translates to the loss of confidence by majority House members on him.”
“He knows that the Super Majority Coalition is no longer with him in view of the glaring and blatant inequities in the district budget allocation for 2020 and 2021 where the lion shares only belong to few Congressmen who are his allies and minions; In view of the members’ resentment in the series of recent stripping off from key positions of House leaders who are not aligned to his autocratic style of management and administration of the House of Representatives,” Velasco said.
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“The foregoing acts manifest Speaker Cayetano’s extreme desire to hold on and hang on to power in clear defiance of President Duterte’s desire for the passage of fair and equitable budget that serves nothing but the interests of the Filipino people,” he added.
Velasco added that Cayetano knows that he is no longer enjoying the trust and confidence of House members and that “this caper is the last nail to his coffin.”
“Because of Speaker Cayetano’s desperate attempt to stay in power, he has bastardized the institution we swore to protect and respect and committed serious violations of the Constitution to save himself,” Velasco said.
“Speaker Cayetano, you’re time is up,” he added.
During Tuesday’s session, Cayetano moved to terminate the period of debates on the proposed 2021 national budget in a bid to belie Velasco’s claims that he was holding the funding proposal hostage.
Cayetano then moved for the creation of a small committee “with full powers to entertain committee as well as individual amendments by the members to be submitted to the committee on appropriations on or before November 5.”
This consequently terminated the period of amendments.
With the period of debates and amendments now closed, a motion was made to approve the proposed 2021 budget on second reading. The motion was seconded and approved.
Consequently, the session was suspended until November 16, “in accordance with the legislative calendar”, meaning that the session was suspended before the expected speakership showdown between Cayetano and Velasco on October 14 where House members are expected to vote who will sit at the helm of the lower chamber.
Under the term-sharing agreement, Cayetano would serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives in the first 15 months of the 18th Congress while Velasco would succeed to serve for the remaining 21 months.
If the term-sharing deal brokered by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2019 is to be strictly observed, Cayetano is supposed to relinquish the speakership to Velasco this month.