Cayetano apologizes for ‘misreading’ President’s intentions in speakership row

Taguig Rep. Alan PeterCayetano (Screengrab from his Facebook page)

MANILA, Philippines — Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano on Tuesday apologized for “misreading” President Rodrigo Duterte’s intentions as he stepped down as leader of the House of Representatives moments after the body ratified the election of its new Speaker, Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco.

“Mr. President, if I made a mistake, my reading was wrong, and I misunderstood your intentions to have me finish the [2021] budget, I ask for your forgiveness,” he said.

“It was not my intention, never, to disobey you,” Cayetano said on Facebook Live outside his Taguig residence.

Turn of the tide

Members of the House said Cayetano’s fall boiled down to a number of factors, chief of which was the perception that he had lost the President’s support, compounded by dissatisfaction over some of his actions, especially the unceremonious removal of Velasco loyalists from their posts and the hasty Oct. 6 suspension of session to prevent a takeover.

Cayetano’s power move, however, drew a sharp rebuke from the real power broker in the 301-member chamber, Duterte, who called Congress to a special session from Oct. 13 to 16 to pass the P4.5-trillion budget on time.

The President’s action was taken by Cayetano’s undecided peers as the turn of the tide. A House source said lawmakers interpreted it as giving Velasco the “window of opportunity” to stage a power grab by calling a special session on a Tuesday, instead of a Monday.

“It cannot be denied that there were signals coming from the actions and statements from key political leaders that showed where they stood on the issue, even without explicit statements,” Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy Biazon told the Inquirer.

“Those who have keen political acumen made decisions based on their reading of those signals,” he said.

Another signal that emboldened Velasco’s group on Monday was the coverage by Radio Television Malacañang, which is responsible for official documentation of the President’s activities. The crew broadcast the events inside Celebrity Sports Plaza in Quezon City live, reportedly on request of a Velasco loyalist.

Velasco’s allies installed him as speaker in what critics called a “rump assembly” in the sports club, which, while irregular, was legitimized on Tuesday through ratification by 186 votes in the plenary hall.

“The issue is confidence. The members lost confidence [in] Cayetano, hence the declaration of the seat vacant,” PBA Rep. Jericho Nograles said.

“That confidence was given to Velasco,” he told the Inquirer.

Velasco, leader of PDP-Laban and supported by the Nationalist People’s Coalition and the party-list bloc, was initially disadvantaged by the superior numbers of the formidable Nacionalista Party-National Unity Party alliance backing Cayetano.

Ace in the hole

Lakas-CMD, led by the influential Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, split in two factions, with the majority going for the new leadership. A House insider said former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was instrumental in one of the small meetings leading up to the Monday coup.

Then Velasco played his ace in the hole—a friendship with the President’s family, especially his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, who reportedly made calls to party and bloc leaders over the weekend.

Sunday saw the perfect time to release a photo of Velasco at a dinner table with the Davao mayor, setting tongues wagging and boosting his supporters’ confidence.

Sara Duterte then released a statement that her Hugpong ng Pagbabago regional party “respected” the term-sharing deal between Cayetano and Velasco.

A source in the Velasco camp said it was not necessary for the President’s daughter to call up House members, as she did when she helped orchestrate Arroyo’s own power grab against Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez in July 2018.

“What was important was the perception that we have her support,” the source said.

Moral upper hand

In his Facebook Live address on Tuesday morning, Cayetano claimed that Velasco only had 121 votes as of Monday night, hours after Velasco was sworn in as new Speaker by the assembly. In contrast, he said, “we had 152, 153 [votes] and they were still chasing more signatures to make it appear that they really had 187.”

By Tuesday morning, however, support for Velasco had snowballed.

Biazon said another factor in Velasco’s favor was he had the moral upper hand as the other party in the term-sharing deal, which Cayetano wanted to get out of.

“I think it was critical that Speaker Velasco made the right decisions on how to react to the situations that confronted his bid to claim what was in the term-sharing agreement,” he said.

“He did not give in to emotional outbursts and impulsive decisions but rather stayed cool and focused. He consulted with his peers and listened to advice. Most of all, he remained firm but not confrontational. In the end, he earned the support of the majority of the members,” Biazon said.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said the 42-year-old Velasco’s other advantages were his “youth, energy and dynamic curiosity.”

“The new Speaker is a workhorse, not a show horse. He has very little appetite for political theatrics, and that attitude will spill over to us in his leadership team,” Salceda said.