Congressmen quarrel over CA posts

Members of both the majority and minority blocs in the House of Representatives are quarreling over three seats in the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) that are expected to be vacated soon.

Representatives Rodolfo Plaza of Agusan del Sur and Jacinto Paras of Negros Oriental are lobbying for the lone minority seat in the 12-member House contingent in the CA that Imee Marcos of Ilocos Norte has given up.

But Rep. Mujiv Hataman of the party-list group Anak Mindanao told reporters that the choice of most of his colleagues in the minority is Plaza, who belongs to the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC).

Marcos, a member of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan that her late father, former president Marcos, founded after martial law, gave up the CA seat on Wednesday after Minority Leader Francis Escudero sought the courtesy resignation of all minority members holding leadership posts.

Though she is the lone KBL member in the minority, Escudero and his colleagues had nominated the daughter of the late strongman to be their representative in the CA.

Rep. Marcos was one of the original 42 complainant-endorsers of the opposition’s amended complaint against President Arroyo. But she was nowhere to be found when her presence mattered most — during the plenary vote on the complaint. The House killed all three impeachment petitions against Mrs. Arroyo.

Also absent during the voting were five other minority members — Luis Asistio and Oscar Malapitan of Caloocan City, Vincent Crisologo of Quezon City, Antonio Serapio of Valenzuela City and Joseph Santiago of Catanduanes. Asistio left for Los Angeles, California two days before the House voted on the complaints.

On the part of the majority, at least one seat is expected to be vacated: that occupied by Cebu Rep. Clavel Martinez, who supported the opposition’s amended impeachment complaint.

During the House inquiry into the "Hello, Garci," tapes controversy, Martinez said she heard conversations in the recordings about alleged election fraud in Cebu.

She told her colleagues that she campaigned for Mrs. Arroyo in May 2004 but that after hearing the conversations, she felt that she had made the wrong decision.

Martinez belongs to the ruling Lakas party, which is leading the majority coalition in the House.

Another majority member who supported the President’s impeachment and who sits in the CA is Bataan’s Antonino Roman.

Roman is one of more than 10 Liberal Party congressmen led by Deputy Speaker Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III who supported the President’s ouster through the impeachment process. Other LP members remained Arroyo loyalists.

Since representation in the CA is by political party, Roman could still hang on to his CA post if LP congressmen support him.

Among the members of the majority who want to sit in the powerful commission are Victor Sumulong of Antipolo City and Generoso Tulagan of Pangasinan, who are both members of the Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi), which is headed by Ronaldo Puno, also of Antipolo City.

Kampi is the political party Mrs. Arroyo founded in 1997 when she was a senator.

The CA is the constitutional body that wields the power of life and death over Cabinet appointments and major promotions in the military and the diplomatic service.

Though it can reject Cabinet appointments, the commission has not exercised its authority to thumb down any appointee in the President’s official family. It only resorts to bypassing certain appointees to express its displeasure over the President’s Cabinet choices.

Members in the commission get extra perks and can wangle concessions from those covered by their power to approve or reject appointments.

In a related development, some minority members criticized Paras for inquiring about additional pork barrel allocations during last Wednesday’s plenary session.

They said their colleague’s inquiry made the opposition look "more pork-hungry" than the majority.