Suarez says battle for minority leader is over; no way, says Lagman, till majority votes in

Is it or isn’t it? Over, that is.

The battle for the post of the House minority leader was over, Quezon Representative Danilo Suarez declared hours before the opening of session Wednesday.

But after the session ended, the minority bloc crown still rested on Albay Representative Edcel Lagman’s head.

Suarez declared before the session began that he was ready to submit a manifesto indicating that most of the allies of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had agreed to install him as the minority leader in lieu of Lagman.

3rd straight day

“I have the numbers. The majority of the minority has given me the mandate,” Suarez said in a weekly press conference of the minority bloc with Zambales Representative Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay. Lagman was notably absent in the press conference.

But the session started and adjourned at 5:30 p.m. with Suarez, for the third straight session day, failing to come up with the manifesto.

Suarez apparently heeded Lagman’s threat that he would challenge Suarez’s manifesto should it be presented during the session.

“Any manifestation in the plenary about Suarez being the new minority leader is out of order. The plenary is not the venue for threshing out disputes in the minority and the rules provide that the minority leader can only be changed by a majority of all the minority members,” said Lagman.

He claimed that five of the signatories had voted for him and that Suarez had nullified their votes.

Lagman also pointed out that two of the signatories did not get permission from the Nacionalista Party (a member of the majority coalition) to vote in the minority selection.

The Albay lawmaker added that one of Suarez’s signatories, Bohol Representative Arthur Yap, had told him that he was staying neutral.

Manifesto to Speaker

Suarez said he presented to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Tuesday a manifesto showing that 21 of the 30 minority-bloc members had voted to enforce a term-sharing agreement that would install him as the minority leader starting this year.

“He told me ‘OK’ and to give him time to speak to Lagman about it,” said Suarez.

The Quezon lawmaker said the House majority had no say in the minority’s affairs except to respect its final decision. “We’ll just inform the majority. It has nothing to do with the problem of the minority,” he said.

Suarez said he gathered the signatures in his manifesto on Monday during a caucus brokered by Maguindanao Representative Simeon Datumanong. Based on their discussions, Suarez said Datumanong told Lagman to announce his resignation during Monday’s session and to nominate Suarez as his replacement.

Lagman apparently has refused to act on Datumanong’s request and even challenged its validity.

Suarez said he talked with Lagman, a seatmate in the session hall, on Tuesday, and told him: “I hope we settle this since we are too few in the minority bloc to fight among ourselves.”

‘No power-sharing’

Suarez said he was willing to wait a little longer if Lagman insisted on staying on as minority leader. “We will not lose anything if we wait. I think it will be resolved hopefully today (Wednesday) and then the minority will still be intact,” he said.

Suarez said he was pained when Lagman said that there was no power-sharing agreement because it meant that he was a liar. “I’m not a power-grabber. I just would like that agreement be respected,” he said.