House doesn’t involve itself in Senate leadership issues — Tulfo

COMPOSITE PHOTO Senate of the Philippines and House of Representatives/INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo on Tuesday maintained that the House of Representatives does not involve itself in discussions about the Senate’s leadership squabble, adding that the chamber is too busy with the deliberation of different proposed measures and issues.

Tulfo, in a press briefing on Tuesday said that rumors of a leadership shakeup in the Senate are old news, noting that when he asked his brother, Senator Raffy Tulfo, about it, the latter responded that he does not know about it.

“We have heard that already, that was last week ago, when I asked my brother (Senator) Raffy, he did not say anything about a coup d’état, so it should be him who should be aware of it, but he has not shared any details about a coup d’état in the Senate,” Tulfo said in English and Filipino.

“Here in Congress we heard that too, but we cannot meddle in such talks, because like in a community, we live in different houses.  That’s about their house, so why would we involve ourselves in it?  Maybe the one who said that coup plots came from us — I do not know where they got it,” he added.

Tulfo said that the House is currently busy with tackling Resolution of Both Houses No. 7 — the proposal to amend three economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution — to even participate in leadership talks at the Senate.

“For us, we’re so busy with what we’re doing right now, with this proposal for charter change, we are talking about it, and then there’s a lot of things that we’re doing right now in Congress, like what was asked earlier, about inflation, the investigation about NFA (National Food Authority), we are doing a lot so we cannot have the time to talk about that coup d’état,” he explained.

“Besides, they in the Senate should talk about that, not us, because we do not care if they change the leadership, if they rearrange their positions, we do not not mind, they should take care of it since they are old enough to decide for themselves,” he added.

On Monday, Senator Imee Marcos confirmed that there was an attempt to change the leadership by ousting Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri.

The development came after talks of change within the Senate leadership over the weekend

Sen. Marcos said that the pressure to replace Zubiri came from “outside the Senate, not within the Senate”.

Hours after Marcos’ admission, 14 senators — including Zubiri himself — signed a statement reiterating their support for the Senate President.   their Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 6 stalled in the Senate.