UNA to join LP majority in House

UNA secretary general Tobias Tiangco

MANILA, Philippines — There’s no more trace of the election rivalry between the Liberal Party and the United Nationalist Alliance, at least in the House of Representatives.

UNA will join the LP-led majority bloc in the House in the 16th Congress, the alliance’s secretary general, Tobias Tiangco, confirmed in a phone interview Wednesday. However, Tiangco said, he would remain “independent.”

UNA and the LP-led coalition were the main rivals for national and local elective positions in the May 2013 elections.

They could be expected to battle it out again in the 2016 presidential race, Tiangco said, but for now UNA is supportive of the administration.

“We’ve been saying it all along, we’re not obstructionists and we support the programs of the President,” he said.

Vice President Jejomar Binay, UNA’s leader, left it to the alliance’s 11 congressional representatives to decide which bloc they want to join, he said.

Tiangco said he could confirm that nine UNA members were committed to joining the majority. A tenth member, Sarangani Representative Manny Pacquiao, was inclined to join the bloc as well.

But Tiangco said he did not want to speak for Pacquiao with finality on this matter because the latter’s request for a committee chairmanship has not been granted. Instead, a counter-offer of vice-chairmanships in two committees was made, but he was unsure if this would be okay with the boxer turned lawmaker.

He said Pacquiao had wanted to chair the committee on aquaculture, since General Santos is the country’s tuna capital, or the committee on overseas Filipino workers, since he was concerned about human trafficking. The youth and sports committee was later suggested, but this was unavailable as well.

Pacquiao would be on his second term in the 16th Congress. For the entire 15th Congress, Pacquiao and Negros Occidental Rep. Julio Ledesma IV were the top absentees in plenary sessions.

The UNA members who will join the majority are Makati Representatives Abigail Binay and Monique Lagdameo; Parañaque Rep. Gus Tambunting; Iloilo Rep. Hernan Biron Jr.; Laguna Rep. Sol Aragones; Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia; Baguio Rep. Nicasio Aliping; Agri party-list Rep. Delphine Lee; and 1BAP party-list Rep. Silvestre Bello.

Tiangco, for his part, had been an independent in the 15th Congress since his resignation from the majority to protest what he claimed was the railroading of the impeachment complaint against then Chief Justice Renato Corona.

He said his independence did not mean he was not supportive of President Aquino’s agenda, because he was. He just had policy differences with House leaders, nothing personal, he added.

Since he will remain an independent in the 16th Congress, he said, he will get no committee memberships or any other position in the House.

But the Navotas representative said he would be active as a lawmaker, since he could file bills, speak and vote in plenary sessions, and attend committee hearings, he said. The only thing he could not do is vote in committee hearings, but voting at the committee level rarely happens anyway, he noted.

Aside from UNA, the LP-led House majority will include the Nationalist People’s Coalition, the Nacionalista Party, the National Unity Party, some lawmakers from the Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats, and party-list groups.

Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales said that while political groups would be fighting it out in elections, forming the majority should not be influenced so much by the next major election.

“When you try to form the majority coalition, you should not be influenced too much by what’s going to happen in 2016 because you’re trying to form a coalition that’s trying to support your legislative agenda,” Gonzales said.

He said some people outside Congress want political groups to draw the line, and to work apart if they are going to go their separate ways later on anyway.

“But that is outside. That’s the political spectrum beyond the halls of Congress. In the halls of Congress, we try to maintain as much as possible a coalition that’s in … support of the President’s legislative agenda,” he said.

He said the effects of the preparations for the 2016 presidential elections were expected to be felt after one-and-a-half years, which was why he wanted the 16th Congress to hit the ground running at the start of its term so that politics would not sway it from passing important legislation.

To be able to accomplish as many tasks as possible early in its term, he said,  House leaders are planning to form the committees early.

Gonzales said the LP’s coalition partners have been asked to name the members they want included on committees.

The LP has also been busy dividing the spoils, so to speak. He said the LP will follow the rule of proportional representation when it comes to getting seats on committees and chairmanships.

The plum posts contested by lawmakers are the deputy speakership posts, membership in the bicameral Commission on Appointments, and the chairmanships of the appropriations and ways and means committees.