MANILA, Philippines — Incumbent Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano allegedly “reused” the electronic signatures of congressmen without their authority in a manifesto supporting him to remain as House Speaker, newly installed Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said Tuesday.
“Some of the congressmen actually talked to me, they were actually contesting why their name was in the manifesto of former Speaker Cayetano,” Velasco said in an interview over CNN Philippines.
“They said that the e-signature, because I think former Speaker Cayetano was using e-signatures of congressmen, was given for a specific purpose and not for that manifesto that he was showing.”
“They were saying they just reused the e-signatures without their authority,” he went on.
In a session at an events venue in Quezon City on Monday, 186 lawmakers voted to elect Velasco as the new Speaker, ousting Cayetano.
But Cayetano’s office released a manifesto showing 200 lawmakers backing his continued term as Speaker.
In the manifesto, lawmakers supposedly said that the rejection of Cayetano’s resignation offer already rendered the term-sharing between the two congressmen “moot and academic.”