Lagman backs LP ally Baguilat for minority leader

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman in a privilege speech on Tuesday expressed his support for his Liberal Party (LP) ally Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat Jr. in the race for minority leader of the 17th Congress.

During his speech, Lagman said Baguilat was the automatic minority leader for having won the second highest number of votes in the speakership race at eight votes against Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez’s seven votes.

But the majority opted to change its rules and said the minority leader would be elected by the members of the emerging minority bloc.

This goes against the previous rules of Congress that the second placer in the Speaker race is the automatic minority leader.

“It has been the customary practice or tradition of the House of Representatives to officially consider the runner-up or the candidate for the position of Speaker garnering the second highest number of votes as minority leader. The validity of this practice has never been questioned,” Lagman said.

Lagman said Suarez had also disqualified himself from the minority race because he voted for the winning Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez. This means Suarez is a member of the majority bloc, and should therefore not be qualified as a minority leader.

Thus, the seven votes Suarez got in the Speaker race should be deemed invalid because he had aligned himself with the majority.

“Representative Suarez had disqualified himself from seeking the position of minority leader because he unequivocally voted for Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez,” Lagman said.

Moreover, Lagman insisted that the 20 lawmakers who had abstained from voting a Speaker were not members of the minority but independent members in Congress.

READ: Baguilat cries foul over game fixing in minority leader elections

The majority bloc led by Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas during Monday’s session said even the 20 lawmakers who abstained were members of the minority bloc.

Baguilat, insisting on his minority post, warned of a plot to have the 20 lawmakers who abstained vote for Suarez in the elections from among the minority members.

Lagman had also warned of the move by the majority to rig the minority elections to install a cooperative minority led by Suarez.

READ: Suarez denies sinister plot to rig minority race

“The minority leader had already been elected by members of the minority when they case their votes for the contenders for the apeakership. Accordingly, the Hon. Teddy Brawner Baguilat Jr. must perforce be recognized forthwith as the current minority leader,” Lagman said.

“It is utterly suspicious, if not downright anomalous, why there is undue procrastination in recognizing minority leader Baguilat Jr.,” he added.

In response, majority floor leader Fariñas criticized the lawmakers for questioning the rule that the minority leader should be elected by members of the minority.

Farinas said Baguilat and Lagman should have questioned the rules agreed upon on Monday.

“It’s the House of Congress that can promulgate its own rules … I represent majority of 251 members of the majority. So I think my opinion matters,” Fariñas said.

Fariñas maintained that Baguilat and Lagman could not claim that the second placer was the automatic minority leader because what happened on Monday was only the elections for Speaker.

Meanwhile, Northern Samar Rep. Raul Daza said the minority members, including the 20 lawmakers who had abstained, planned to meet tomorrow morning to elect the minority leader.

Lagman decried the underhanded scheme for a minority elections tomorrow, adding the majority bent House rules to its own advantage.

Lagman lamented the majority bloc’s scheme to “bastardize the process of selecting the minority leader.”

READ: Lagman warns of ‘co-opted’ minority bloc

Lagman, Suarez’s political foe, first exposed the plot for the majority to lend some of its members to vote for the latter to lead a “coopted” minority bloc.

Lagman and Suarez were at odds in the 15th Congress when Lagman accused former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of being behind an ouster move against him to install Suarez as minority leader.

READ: Lagman quits minority, Arroyo

Lagman and Suarez were on a term-sharing agreement in leading the minority before the start of the 15th Congress.

Amid the scuffle for minority leadership with Suarez, Lagman in 2012 resigned as minority leader and chair of Arroyo’s Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrat. He jumped ship to the Liberal Party.