Game fixing in House, too?
WHO SAID game fixing could happen only in sports?
It can happen in the House of Representatives, too, and there Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco is accusing the new ruling party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), of fixing the fight for the minority leadership.
The minority bloc is the fiscalizer in the House and it must have credibility, he said.
Tiangco, president of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), had wanted to contest the race for the minority leadership even though he knew he would “possibly” lose to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte of the Liberal Party (LP).
“At least, it would be losing fair and square,” Tiangco said yesterday.
Deal with Alvarez
But his partymate, Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, suddenly joined the race and apparently sealed a deal with President Duterte’s chosen Speaker, Davao Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez III.
On Saturday, Belmonte announced that he would no longer lead the opposition in the 17th Congress and that the LP would join the PDP-Laban-led majority coalition.
UNA is the political party of former Vice President Jejomar Binay, who, after years of preparation and campaign chest building, polled only 5.4 million votes in the May 9 presidential election, getting crushed by Mr. Duterte’s 16.6 million votes.
Tiangco said Binay, Suarez, and Alvarez met on Tuesday at Makati Diamond Hotel to discuss the minority leadership race.
At the time, Belmonte was still was still talking about leading the minority bloc.
‘Danny, not Toby’
According to Tiangco, Alvarez told Binay that he was “willing to give votes to UNA on one condition”—that the minority leader would be “Danny and not Toby.”
“I told [Binay], ‘When did the majority get a say in picking who would be the minority leader?’ I did not agree to it. And then [on Saturday], SB (Sonny Belmonte) withdrew from the race,” Tiangco said, adding that he was just as surprised as everyone else when Belmonte announced his capitulation.
Tiangco said he did not want to be part of the “game fixing.”
In a statement, Suarez said: “I don’t believe anyone has a monopoly [on] public servitude (sic). It pains me to see my colleagues trying to undermine my bid for the minority leadership in tomorrow’s speakership race. I have been a minority leader before and I have my track record to back me up.”
LP Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay said the selection of the minority leader was “bastardized” by the alleged agreement between Alvarez and Suarez.
Lagman said it was “true” that Alvarez offered to lend congressmen from the majority to vote for Suarez instead of him so Suarez would end up becoming the minority leader.
“Because if no one is lent to Suarez, he would not win. In other words, this process is being bastardized. We now have what we call a charade,” Lagman said.
Lagman said he would not join the Belmonte-led LP exodus to the majority bloc.
He said seven other LP members, five party-list representatives, and allies from other political parties would become the “independent minority,” which he wanted to call “independent caucus.”
Looking for candidate
The latest development has led Tiangco and Lagman to cross party lines.
At press time last night, they are set to discuss whom they could field in today’s race for the House speakership, even if Alvarez was expected to win it hands down and Suarez to lose but still become the minority leader.
“We have to put up a fight as a symbol [of] what we stand for. We are trying to find a candidate,” Tiangco said.
“Of course, it will be difficult to find one because it would take a miracle to win. But we have to try to convince someone who is willing to be the symbol of our common stand that game fixing has no place in Congress, that there should be a true and real minority,” he said. TVJ
