House members pray over Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano following his election as speaker of the House of Representatives. The pray-over was led by Eduardo Villanueva, the televangelist who now represents the Cibac party-list group.
Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday successfully enforced a term-sharing agreement with his chief rival, Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, and will serve as speaker of the House of Representatives for the next 15 months.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s son, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, was the first to nominate Cayetano for speaker, squelching all talk of a last-minute “coup.”
Velasco himself and another contender for speaker, Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, also nominated Cayetano, as did the opposition’s choice for minority leader, Rep. Bienvenido Abante of Manila.
But “the term-sharing agreement is one between Congressman Cayetano, Romualdez, Velasco and the president,” the younger Duterte pointed out.
“I am against any term-sharing agreement,” he added. The ex-Davao City vice mayor then warned that “if the speaker resigns after 15 months, then we will have to elect a new speaker.”
Cayetano won 266 votes while Abante won 28 votes. Two lawmakers abstained while another voted “no.”
On the ABS-CBN News Channel, former Marikina congressman Miro Quimbo said this term-sharing deal was “unprecedented” in the history of the House but said Cayetano would be an effective speaker because of his access to President Duterte.
Cayetano began his acceptance speech by quoting the Book of Matthew, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,” which he said only meant “doing the right thing.”
The new speaker served two terms in the Senate and ran as Duterte’s vice president in the May 2016 polls. He lost the vice-presidential race to Camarines Sur Rep. Maria Leonor Robredo and sat it out for a year before being nominated for the post of secretary of foreign affairs.
All his rivals for the post went up to the rostrum for Cayetano’s swearing in. With Cayetano was his mother Sandra Schramm and wife, Lani, representative of the second district of Taguig.
The Cayetano had couple fended off questions over their qualification, as it was the first time a husband a wife ran for Congress in separate districts, thus requiring separate home addresses. (PressONE.ph)