House leaders call Zambales congressman’s bluff

The leadership of the House of Representatives is likely to call the bluff of Zambales Rep. Antonio Diaz, who has resigned from the legislature after failing to bag a key post in the House as well as other concessions.

Majority leader Prospero Nograles of Davao City said the House cannot meddle in Diaz’s resignation, saying the matter is a "social contract between him and his constituents."

Diaz sent a resignation letter to Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. last Thursday, stating "it is no longer an honor to serve this body, which was once called an August body."

He resigned after De Venecia turned down Diaz’s request for him to be made deputy speaker for Luzon. He also complained that no funds in the national budget were allocated for his district.

Despite the resignation letter, however, Diaz yesterday said he will not step down until the House accepts his resignation.

"It would be an abandonment of post if I leave my office," he told a press forum in Quezon City.

De Venecia confirmed in a radio interview that Diaz lobbied for the senior post. "But I told him that this matter is for the majority to decide," he said. "It’s not something within the power of the speaker."

Diaz has to be nominated to the post by his party, the Liberal Party, De Venecia explained, as in the case of congressmen Benigno Aquino III, Emilio Espinosa, Raul del Mar and Gerry Salapuddin — deputy speakers for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, respectively.

Diaz has until Tuesday to change his mind when the House committee on rules, headed by Nograles, endorses the issue to the entire legislature, De Venecia said.

Diaz said his resignation was not irrevocable. It was merely a "symbolic resignation" protesting the House’s alleged failure to start deliberations on vital legislation, he said.

Nograles said the House will "accept his resignation because it’s not up to us to interfere in his personal decision."

"The House is not a forced labor camp. We cannot force him to work. The chamber cannot interfere because this is between him and his constituents who elected him," Nograles said.

Diaz, however, denied that his failure to bag the post of deputy speaker was a reason for his resignation.

But he did say: "If only the Speaker had granted me what I spoke to him about… There are four deputy speakers and I have been elected seven times already. So why is it that I cannot even be deputy speaker and only the younger congressmen can be deputy speaker?"

The resignation took Pasig City Rep. Robert Jaworski Jr. by surprise.

"I’m sure whatever these faults (of the House) are, Rep. Diaz has seen them all during his long years as congressman. So I think it’s unfair for him to claim that the House of Representatives has ceased to exist as an honorable institution," he said. — With Perseus Echeminada