Filipino people ‘down’ in line of speakers: solon

MANILA – The Filipino people still recovering from the effects of the pandemic are among the victims of the current dispute over speakers in the House of Representatives, a lawmaker said Wednesday.

By allegedly manipulating the proposed 2021 budget, President Alan Peter Cayetano and his allies in the lower house have deprived Filipinos of a transparent spending package that responds to the health crisis, said the representative of the AAMBIS party list. -OWA, Sharon Garin, to ANC’s “Matters of Fact.”

“We are in a pandemic and we should have a 2021 budget that responds to that. We have an economic and health crisis,” said the legislator, who was stripped of the chairmanship of the economic affairs committee.

“By doing this and not allowing the public to see the discussions and their representatives participating in the discussions, how can we be sure they will respond?”

Cayetano closed on Tuesday the debates on the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) that, consequently, suspended the sessions until mid-November.

Congressmen approved only in second reading the national budget of P4.5 billion for 2021 by motion of Cayetano.

Garin, who is allied with Marinduque Lone District Representative Lord Allan Jay Velasco, criticized Cayetano’s moves to hold onto his post as “non-parliamentarian.”

“I always supported the respectful lang sa kapuwa congressman. We have to hold ourselves to a certain level of standards to deserve this position. That does not give you the right to defame anyone,” he said.

His removal from the panel was also “unfair and unequal,” Garin said.

The representative of the fourth district of Quezon, Helen Tan, of the Nationalist Popular Coalition, and the representative of the second district of the city of Valenzuela, Eric Martínez, of PDP-Laban, were also appointed chairmen of the health, youth and sports committees. , respectively.

Garin said that Cayetano, who should resign as president on Oct. 14, only risked alienating more members of the House.

“Because it seems that we are abandoning tradition. We are abandoning honor … We are trying to involve them (the congressmen) in a fight for oratory, which is actually among the 2. It is an insult to every congressman,” he said. He said.

Despite the “circus” in the lower house, Garín is optimistic that Velasco will assume the leadership of the House, and emphasized that they have the numbers to unseat Cayetano.

“It is not over. Many things will still happen. I would advise Cong. Velasco to continue because that is what the president wanted,” he said.

Under the shared term agreement negotiated by President Rodrigo Duterte last year, Cayetano will lead the House of Representatives for the first 15 months of the 18th Congress or until October, while Velasco will hold office for the remaining 21 months.