House elects 12 more committee chairmen

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives has elected 12 more committee chairmen in preparation for working full-blast on pending bills and resolutions and proposed legislative inquiries.

Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said elected chairmen on Tuesday and Wednesday were Representatives Jerry Treñas of Iloilo, good government; Ramon Durano IV of Cebu, economic affairs; Alfredo Marañon III of Negros Occidental, health; Benhur Salimbangon also of Cebu, aquaculture; Sergio Apostol of Leyte, banks and financial intermediaries; Salvador Escudero III of Sorsogon, basic education; Loreto Ocampos of Misamis Occidental, constitutional amendments;

Jose Ping-ay of the party-list group Coop-Natcco, cooperatives development; Vicente Belmonte Jr. of Iligan City, dangerous drugs; Danilo Fernandez of Laguna, ecology; Erico Fabian of Zamboanga City, government enterprises; and Andres Salvacion also of Leyte, civil service.

On Monday, the House elected Representatives Mark Llandro Mendoza of Batangas, Henry Pride Teves of Negros Oriental and Florencio Noel of the party-list group An Waray as chairmen of the committees on agriculture, agrarian reform and accounts, respectively.

Last week, Gonzales assumed the chairmanship of the committee on rules, while Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. of Iloilo as head of the committee on justice.

Gonzales said the House is now almost halfway in filling committee assignments.

“We expect to complete the organization of committees next week,” he said.

He said Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and the rest of the House leadership want to make sure that committee assignments are equitably distributed among political parties that are part of the Liberal Party-led majority coalition.

“We are still awaiting the nominations of some of our coalition partners,” Gonzales, a member of LP, added.

Marañon, of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), was elected chairman of the committee on health after Rep. Anthony Golez of Bacolod City, who belongs to the same party, gave way to him.

Health is one of the committees that the House leadership gave to NPC, its biggest coalition partner.

Valenzuela Rep. Rex Gatchalian, NPC spokesman, lauded Golez’s decision to give way “and in the process uphold a House tradition that committee chairmanships are given only to more senior members.”

“We at NPC are proud of Rep. Golez’s decision. It showed that he would not let his personal interests prevail over the interest of the general public. He is a true public servant and he has proven that he upholds the doctrines and beliefs that NPC is standing for,” he said.

He said the former Palace spokesman was qualified for the health post, being a medical doctor by profession and a former health undersecretary.

Speaker Belmonte said last night that they hope to finish the committee chairmanships in two more session days, “until perhaps Tuesday.”

“The committee chairmanships will be completed, but the membership will be a continuing thing since most committees are large. The committee on appropriations, for instance, is composed of 120 members,” he said.

He said the composition of the 12-member House contingent in the Commission on Appointments (CA) is a little problematic with the splitting of Lakas-Kampi into three factions.

“Our lawyers are studying whether they could be considered as one group,” he added.

The ruling party during the Arroyo administration has been split into three – one group led by former budget secretary and now Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., another group headed by Representatives Antonio Alvarez of Palawan and Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Cavite, and the minority bloc led by Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay.

Members of the first two groups voted for Belmonte as speaker and are now members of the Liberal Party-led majority.

Since representation in the CA is by political party, Belmonte said the issue that House lawyers would resolve is whether members of Lakas-Kampi now part of the majority could still be considered as belonging to the former administration party.

“But we don’t consider this as an insurmountable problem,” he said.

He also defended his decision to give committee chairmanships to party-list congressmen.

“With 42 of them now here, they are a major part of the House,” he said.

One party-list congressman whom Belmonte chose to head a committee is Noel of An Waray. Noel’s committee on accounts manages the funds of the House.