Philippine Daily Inquirer Digital Edition

ROMUALDEZ WASN’T IN ONVPRUN, DUTERTE SAYS

By Krixia Subingsubing and Jeannette I. Andrade @Team_Inquirer

It appears disunity is already hounding President Marcos’ men less than a year since he assumed office, fueled mainly by a widening rift between his vice president and his cousin.

This time, Vice President Sara Duterte is pushing back against an attempt to credit her vice presidential run to Speaker Martin Romualdez.

“[He] had absolutely nothing to do with my decision to run for vice president,” she said in a statement issued on Wednesday night. “To say that he ‘tremendously helped in pushing for’ my vice presidential bid is acutely inaccurate—an insult to thousands of groups and individuals who incessantly implored me to reconsider an earlier decision not to join national politics.”

Duterte clarified that it was the President’s sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, who “eventually persuaded me to run as vice president and it was a decision sealed only after President Bongbong Marcos agreed to the conditions I set before running for VP.”

“There was no Speaker Romualdez in the picture,” she said.

The claim came from Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr., who belatedly came to Romualdez’s defense after becoming the target of Duterte’s ire following the demotion of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from her post as senior deputy House Speaker.

In defending the Speaker, Barzaga noted that Romualdez “held his horses and remained focused on his job amid this political rift ... he never fired back with insults of his own.”

Barzaga added that political bickering “is the last thing this country needs,” especially since both Mr. Marcos and Duterte ran and won on a platform of unity.

But for Duterte, who once warned against ambitious “tambaloslos,” a mythical creature with a large mouth and penis (she was believed to be alluding to Romualdez), political bickering was just another “facet of democracy and should not be used to equate with governance.”

“A person who cannot distinguish between attack and humor has no place in politics,” she said. “On the one hand, how the recent political developments have become an opportunity for sycophants is quite amusing.”

Unnecessary distractions

“Let me reiterate this, however—the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is stable and strong,” she said. “It has my all-out support.”

Pundits and even Arroyo believed she was demoted following rumblings of a coup against Romualdez, whom Mr. Marcos picked as his Speaker instead of the former president. Duterte, who sees Arroyo as a close friend and trusted counsel, then resigned from the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) party chaired by Romualdez as a protest against “political toxicity” and “execrable power play.”

However, House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe said the lower chamber should “ignore all forms of distractions” and “useless partisan bickering” and focus instead on preparations for the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) next month.

According to Dalipe, “Right now, the House is in the thick of preparations for President Marcos’ second SONA as we also prepare to receive from Malacañang next year’s proposed National Expenditure Program,” stressing, “Our hands are full in the House of Representatives so we cannot afford to squander our time on useless partisan bickering.”

He committed no slowdown in the legislative mill due to “premature partisanship.”

“All these political rumblings are unnecessary distractions that will only [break] our momentum in ensuring the swift passage of President Marcos’ priority measures and those that were approved by the Ledac (Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council),” he pointed out.

Dalipe said that the House lawmakers, under Romualdez’s leadership, would work doubly harder to carry out their mandate to pass laws needed to jumpstart the country’s economy and uplift the lives of the country’s poor.

The majority leader pointed out that Romualdez, who heads the ruling Lakas-CMD, was able to secure multipartisan support in the House of Representatives, resulting in the passage of 33 of 42 priority legislation specified by the Ledac and the processing of 9,600 measures at a record-breaking pace.

NEWS

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2023-06-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://philippinedailyinquirerplus.pressreader.com/article/282406993749543

Philippine Daily Inquirer