SB mulling options on House post

MANILA, Philippines – Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. is still mulling his options on whether to vie for the top job in the House of Representatives, which he concedes would be won by Davao del Norte Representative-elect Pantaleon Alvarez.

Alvarez is the choice of incoming president Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte for speaker.

Running against Alvarez “is an option,” Belmonte, who belongs to the ruling Liberal Party, said yesterday in a radio interview.

“But at the moment, the number one option of the Liberal Party (LP) is to be cooperative with the new administration, to extend all the help we can to make it successful,” he said.

He will be the new minority leader if he loses the vote for speaker to Alvarez. The incumbent minority leader, reelected San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, has defected to the Alvarez camp.

“The Liberal Party as a whole wants to be part of the majority. And we are negotiating it. But for sure, there are those who will want to be in the minority,” Belmonte said.

He said defectors to the Alvarez camp who will not be happy with the distribution of committees would join the minority.

“During my six years as speaker, I was fair to members of the majority and the minority in the assignment of committee posts because we are all public servants,” he said.

He added that LP members are proposing that they be allowed to retain their current party affiliation even if they are part of the majority.

However, the camp of Alvarez, who belongs to the incoming ruling party Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, wants defectors to take their oath as PDP-Laban members.