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MANILA, Philippines – The quarrel between three groups claiming to be the minority in the House of Representatives is about to reach the Supreme Court (SC).
Rodolfo Fariñas, former leader of the majority of Ilocos Norte, and Marikina Rep. Romero Quimbo, former vice president, said yesterday that they would go to the SC if the new leadership under the chairmanship of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recognizes Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez as always the leader of the minority.
Fariñas and Quimbo told Suarez, his elder Lito Atienza deputy of Buhay Group and 12 members of the minority lost their membership and became members of the new majority when they voted for Arroyo on July 23.
However, the two do not agree on who is now the leading minority, a position that Suarez continues to claim.
For Fariñas, the leadership of the minority transmitted to Eugene Michael de Vera of the party group Arts, Business and Science, one of the deputies of Suarez, who abstained from voting when Arroyo
L & # Former leader of the majority declared that De Vera, as successor of Suarez and Atienza, should succeed to his minority bosses who had effectively abandoned their positions by voting for Arroyo
"Miro Quimbo can not claim to be leader minority because this position was not declared vacant when we elected a new president.The succession system should work, "he said.
He said that President Pantaleon Alvarez and 13 of their former majority colleagues had asked to be part of the minority and that De Vera had already accepted them
. "We are therefore the legitimate minority. the new president to recognize us, "he added.
According to the rules of the House, the majority must recognize the minority and its leader.
In a letter to Arroyo, De Vera says that he "Accepted the application of former members of the majority to the minority."
He identified them as Alvarez, Fariñas, representatives Juan Pablo Bondoc (Pampanga), Rey Umali (Oriental Mindoro), Roger Mercado (south of Leyte), Lucy Torres-Gomez (Leyte), Johnny Pimentel (Southern Surigao) , Rodito Albano (Isabela), Joel Mayo Almario (Davao Oriental), Arnel Uy (LPGMA), Aileen Radaza (City of Lapu-Lapu), Ruwel Gonzaga (Compostela Valley), Monsour del Rosario (Makati) and Mauyag Papandayan Jr. (Lanao del Sur)
But Quimbo said in a television interview he and his party companions in the Liberal Party and the seven-member Makabayan bloc "are the new minority because we abstained or voted against President Arroyo. "
He said that it is clear in the Hou It states that those who vote against the President or abstain from voting belong to the minority.
"We are 22 years old and we are counting, and my colleagues have elected me as their leader. We wrote the new President to recognize us. "
Quimbo has in fact printed a new letterhead with the title" Minority Leader. "
Suarez camp hosted the plan of the Fariñas-Alvarez and Quimbo- LP groups to challenge its claim to the minority leadership.
" They should do that. But from now on, we are the minority and members of Congress Suarez is our minority leader. He referred to the decision of the Supreme Court of July 2017 confirming the election of Suarez as leader of the minority and the recognition of the majority of the House by it.
If Fariñas and Quimbo put an end to their plans to go to the High Court, it would be a resumption of the 2016 fight between Suarez and the representative of Ifugao Teodoro Baguilat Jr. for the minority post .
However, the time is not on the side of those who want to grab minority leadership, since it took a year for the SC to resolve the Suarez-Baguilat conflict. The Seventeenth Congress has only ten months to go
The leader of the parliamentary majority, Rolando Andaya Jr., said that they still recognize the Suarez group, noting that lawmakers are not appointing and only vote for Arroyo for SONA. 19659002] Andaya also ironically compared the problem of the minority in the House with that of the west coast of the Philippines.
"Our problem of minority leadership is very similar to that of the Western Philippine Sea – there are so many claimants." Meanwhile, President Duterte's PDP-Laban will meet tomorrow to discuss the opportunity to grant Arroyo a higher position in the party.
"I have not yet spoken to former President Gloria (Arroyo) position in PDP, given her busy schedule." I do not know, we still have to discuss it, "he said. said party vice president Alfonso Cusi on the sidelines of the Philippine Electricity Market (PEMC) presidency renewal ceremony yesterday
-Laban "to consolidate support for the president."
sworn in as a full member of the party before the Secretary General and then President Pantaleon Alvarez.
Before transferring to PDP-Laban, Arroyo was part of
Having resumed the post of president of Alvarez, some PDP-Laban members have recommended to Arroyo to get a higher position in the party, according to reports.But Cusi said the question was to be discussed first.
"The last time that I spoke with GMA, she said that she would continue to stay with PDP-Laban, she did not mean otherwise, "he said. his initials.
"We can not just tell him to have this position without first discussing it, and I do not know the plans of the President," he said. Filipino – With Delon Porcalla, Danessa Rivera
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