Floirendo accepts ouster from CA, focused on constituents’ welfare

Pantaleon Alvarez (second from left) and Antonio Floirendo Jr. (second from right) were good friends and were all smiles in late 2015, as they filed their certificates of candidacies for Congress for the 2016 national elections. With them were Alvarez’s wife, Emily (left) and Floirendo’s partner, Cathy Binag. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

DAVAO CITY – Davao del Norte 2nd district Representative Antonio Floirendo Jr. on Tuesday said he had no problem about his ouster from the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) saying his appointment to the body has always been “at the behest of the Lower House leadership.”

On Monday, Deputy majority leader and Pampanga Representative Juan Pablo Bondoc announced Floirendo’s ouster as member of the CA.

Floirendo’s ouster came following his absent vote in the death penalty bill.

Alvarez had earlier said he would strip allies of their committees if they failed to support the bill.

But Floirendo – whose tiff with Alvarez, whom he supported in last year’s congressional elections for the first district of Davao del Norte, reportedly started with the quarrel their mistresses had been involved in – said “(i)f the House leadership deemed me as no longer needed in the CA post, so be it.”

In a statement, he said his removal from the CA did not affect his being a legislator because “I owe my position to the people of the 2nd District of Davao del Norte, period.”

Floirendo said his mandate has always been to serve “the people of my congressional district.”

“(T)hat is my utmost priority over anything else. I will continue to serve my constituents and I don’t seek any other higher position as I have always been reminded by my father to take care of the very people who helped us be where we are now,” Floirendo said.

He said his ouster from the CA did not diminish his support to President Rodrigo Duterte, whose political campaign he had heavily funded.

“Positions may come and go but my brotherly love for Digong remains forever. He is family. And family sticks together till the end,” Floirendo said.

Based on Bondoc’s pronouncement, Floirendo had been replaced to the CA with majority leader and Isabela Representative Rodolfo Albano III, who had recently joined Duterte’s party.  SFM