Arroyo to head caucus of admin coalition parties today to settle House Speakership row

By Ronron
February 3, 2008

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will preside over a caucus she called for today (Monday) in Malacañang for leaders of administration coalition parties as a means to settle the House Speakership row.

After a lunch meeting yesterday with Lakas stalwarts at Malacañang, Arroyo agreed with the proposal of Majority Floor Leader Arthur Defensor and Deputy Speaker Simeon Datumanong to have a caucus at 10 am today before the House of Representatives starts its session at 4pm.

House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. fears of being dislodged from the post that he held for more than 10 years already since some members of the House, particularly from Arroyo’s Kampi, have reportedly started to push for Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles in his stead.

Observers opine that this could be related to the effort of de Venecia’s son, Joey, to pin the administration and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo to the anomalous deal of the government with ZTE Corporation for the multi-million-peso National Broadband Network project.

“It was agreed that the matter can be best settled through a caucus of leaders of administration coalition parties – the Lakas, Kampi, NPC (Nationalist People’s Coalition), LP (Liberal Party), NP (Nacionalista Party), LDP (Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino), PDSP (Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas), and Party list,” Arroyo’s spokesman, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, said in a statement yesterday.

Bunye said one of the modes that could possibly be discussed in the caucus, which will be held at the Malacanang Golf Club, is “straw voting.”

Kampi’s Luis Villafuerte, Representative of Camarines Sur, had earlier claimed that 134 congressmen have already signed a manifesto that calls for a change in the House leadership. He said it was way beyond the required 121 votes.

De Venecia, however, quickly downplayed this by saying late last week that Arroyo had his support.

Asked yesterday about Arroyo’s position on the issue, Presidential deputy spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo told a radio interview: “The President has given her statement that she continues to support Speaker Jose de Venecia. So, the President’s position over the matter is still for a status quo on Speaker de Venecia’s speakership. That was her last statement.”

Fajardo said this is to maintain “political stability.”

However, she said that out of respect to a co-equal branch of government, Arroyo, as head executive, deemed it better to leave it to members of Congress “to decide for themselves” who they want to elect as Speaker.

Thus, the scheduled caucus today.

Attending yesterday’s lunch meeting from 12:15 until 3 pm are Arroyo, de Venecia, former President Fidel Ramos, Defensor, Datumanong, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Senator Miguel Zubiri, Rep. Ed Zialcita, League of Cities President Benhur Abalos (Mayor of Mandaluyong City), ULAP (Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines) President Ramon Guico, Cabinet Secretaries Peter Favila and Gary Teves, and party adviser Gabriel Claudio, said Bunye.

Bunye said Arroyo was seated in between de Venecia and Ramos, and pointed out that Arroyo had some interactions of course with de Venecia.

The meeting was preceded by a nine-hole game at Malacanang led by Ramos and de Venecia, which was scheduled after de Venecia’s meeting with Arroyo late last week.

The game kicked off past 7:30 am, and had Ramos, de Venecia, Favila, Teves, Presidential Management Staff head Cerge Remonde, and Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., among others, as participants.

Remonde said Arroyo did not join the game because she had a scheduled mass to attend at 10am.

Aside from the Speakership issue, the meeting also discussed the forthcoming Lakas directorate meeting on February 7, said Bunye./DMS