Suarez confident Romualdez will be minority leader in next Congress

LEYTE Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (first district). CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – It may be a three-way race for speakership but House minority leader Danilo Suarez said he was confident that Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) president and Leyte Representative Ferdinand Martin Romualdez will get the minority leader post.

Romualdez will be one of the contenders for speakership in the House of Representatives. He will be going against Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and San Juan Representative Ronaldo Zamora but only to take control of the minority bloc.

President Benigno Aquino III himself has endorsed Belmonte to retain his hold on the Speaker position in the 16th Congress.

Asked what he knew of Zamora’s bid for the Speakership, Suarez said “he is interested in the seat as head of Congress.”

The person who gets the second highest number of votes will get to lead the minority bloc in Congress and despite the presence of Zamora in the speakership race, the outgoing minority leader maintained that they already “have the numbers -a decent number.”

The minority bloc has been busy this past week meeting with House members for the 16th Congress to ask for support for Romualdez and Suarez said that he predicts “when it comes to voting on July 22, the minority will be in the vicinity of 20 to 25 (votes).”

“We have been doing our homework. We have been campaigning for possible members to support Congressman Romualdez,” he said.