Opposition goes to SC over House ‘minority’ issue

Seven opposition lawmakers have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to resolve the question of who comprises the “authentic minority” bloc in the House of Representative minority.

“I hope the SC would be able to see through the importance of this petition with respect to current events,” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman told reporters on Tuesday.

The other opposition lawmakers who joined the mandamus petition filed on Oct. 14 included Teddy Baguilat (Ifugao), Raul Daza (Northern Samar), Edgar Erice (Caloocan), Emmanuel Billones (Capiz), Tom Villarin (Akbayan partylist), and Gary Alejano (Magdalo party-list).

Named respondents were House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez III, House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, and Rep. Danilo Suarez, who had been “elected” the minority leader.

The petition urges the high court to compel the respondents to recognize Baguilat as the clear runner-up to Alvarez in the speakership race last July 25, with eight votes against Suarez’s seven.

The opposition lawmakers said two days after the voting, the congressmen who voted for Suarez as Speaker and those who abstained convened to elect Suarez as the minority leader. Suarez himself voted for Alvarez, which technically makes him part of the majority bloc, they said.

The petitioners said those who voted for Suarez in that caucus were “pseudo-minority members who were directed by the leadership of the supermajority to beef up the small group of Suarez by first abstaining in the election for Speaker and then convening to elect Suarez as ‘minority leader.’”

The petitioners said Suarez’s election excluded Baguilat from his “rightful and automatic position as minority leader.”

They argued that Baguilat was entitled to “the long unbroken tradition of the House of Representatives wherein the clear second placer in the speakership contest automatically becomes and is recognized as minority leader.”