Suarez is new minority leader

Rep. Danilo Suarez. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

What goes around, comes around.

This was the message of Minority Leader Danilo Suarez of the House of Representatives to the camp of Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat of the Liberal Party (LP) that also used its superior numbers to coopt the minority bloc in the 15th Congress.

“Maybe it’s karma,” Suarez said in a phone interview shortly after he was voted House minority leader two days after the opening of the 17th Congress.

Suarez recalled that in 2013, he and his former political party, Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), had the numbers to install then Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez as minority leader.

But at the last minute, Suarez said, the LP-led majority bloc threw its excess forces to back San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, a member of the Nacionalista Party, which was part of the majority coalition.

On Aquino’s order

Suarez claimed that the LP majority was acting on then President  Aquino’s order to block Romualdez and Lakas-CMD’s bid as he preferred Zamora as House minority leader.

Suarez noted that Romualdez was a nephew of former first lady Imelda Marcos and Lakas-CMD was the party of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

He said Romualdez lost by three votes but he accepted it like a man. “He didn’t contest the voting and just opted to be an independent minority.”

Only difference

Suarez noted that the only difference in the minority voting in the 16th and 17th Congresses was Baguilat and his LP allies were refusing to accept the results and were opting instead to badmouth him and his supporters.

Suarez said his move to play the role of a “cooperative minority” in the House was no different from the role played by the LP-installed minority in the last Congress.

“I’m just surprised why they think its right if they are the one doing it, and wrong if others do it,” he said.

Installed by majority bloc

For Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, it was, for all intents and purposes, a House minority leadership installed by the majority bloc.

Lagman was referring to the selection of Suarez as leader of the minority bloc in an election held by lawmakers, who abstained and those who voted for him at the speakership race on Monday.

Davao Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez became the Speaker of the 17th Congress, with 251 votes delivered by his supermajority led by President Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).

“How can they select a minority leader who is a member of the majority because he (Suarez) voted for the eventual winner, Speaker Alvarez? That cannot be done,” Lagman said at a press briefing.

Citing Section 8, Rule 2 of the Rules of the House, Lagman said that Suarez “cannot aspire for or be minority leader because after voting for Speaker Alvarez, he is considered to belong to the majority.”

The rules read: “Members who vote for the winning candidate for Speaker shall constitute the majority in the House.”

Moreover, Lagman said that those who abstained were actually allies of the majority, based on their party affiliations.

Fake minority

This being so, Lagman called the Suarez-led bloc as the “fake minority.”

Lagman said Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat, Northern Samar Rep. Raul Daza, Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, Capiz Rep. Emmanuel Billones, Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano, Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin, and 1-Sagip Rep. Rodante Marcoleta comprised the “genuine and authentic minority.”

“We feel very disappointed and disgusted that the process of electing a minority leader has been bastardized because the minority leader has been chosen by a renegade group of abstentionists, who are not even members of the minority. It was clear cut that Teddy won last Monday,” Lagman said.

For his part, Daza said: “What the supermajority had done, this is what trapos (traditional politicians) do. We are supposed to be moving out of a regime of trapos but we are now seeing a debasement, where we are relegating the House of Representatives to the House of Trapos.”

“We will not allow them to make this into a footnote. We will hound them for the next three years,” Baguilat said.

Suarez earlier explained that he voted for Alvarez because traditionally, a nominated candidate does not vote for himself.

Baguilat received the second highest number of votes in the speakership race, after getting eight votes compared with the seven votes of Suarez.

If tradition was followed, Baguilat should have been the House minority leader.

But the Suarez bloc did not recognize tradition when it came to the minority leadership.

Tradition vs rules

Kabayan Rep. Harry Roque said “tradition cannot prevail over rules.”

Lagman said that those who abstained in Monday’s voting had actually joined the majority bloc led by PDP-Laban. “Can the allies of the majority select the minority leader?” he asked.

He also said that all those who abstained from the selection of the Speaker were considered independent members of the House.

At a meeting on Wednesday, 14 of those who abstained on Monday voted for Suarez, adding their numbers to the original seven who voted for the Quezon lawmaker.

Suarez finally voted for himself. In all, he received 22 votes on Wednesday.