Contest for House minority leadership reaches SC

MANILA, Philippines – Allies of Ifugao Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat at the House of Reprensentatives raised the contest over the minority leadership to the Supreme Court.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman on Tuesday said the petition for mandamus dated Oct. 14, 2016 questions the post of Minority Floor Leader Rep. Danilo Suarez and asks the high court to recognize Baguilat.

The petition was filed by Baguilat and Reps. Lagman, Raul Daza, Edgar Erice, Emmanuel Billones, Tomasito Villarin, Gary Alejano against House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Fariñas and Suarez.

“The issue on the premeditated marginalization or even demise of the House minority as engineered by the leadership of the supermajority is now with the Supreme Court for adjudication,” Lagman said in a statement on Tuesday.

Lagman said Baguilat was a clear runner-up to Alvarez for House speakership contest last July 25. Baguilat also defeated Suarez by a vote of 8 to 7. By an unbroken tradition, Baguilat should have been elevator as floor leader, Lagman said.

The Albay congressman lamented that Suarez was elected by a mixed group of “pseudo-minority members who were directed by the leadership of the supermajority to beef up the small group of Suarez last July 27."

He said these members first abstained in the election for Alvarez and convened to elect Suarez as minority leader.

Lagman added that based on the Section 8 of Article II of the House rules, the separate election of the minority leader by the members of the minority only applies when there is no clear runner-up to the speaker, such as when there was a lone candidate or when three candidates for speakership figure in a tie for runner-up.

The case does not apply to the election for Baguilat, who was placed second.

For Lagman, Suarez becoming the majority’s minority leader fails to respect the role of the opposition.

“Petitioners who constitute the authentic minority are the real oppositionists in the House as shown by their consistent advocacies and pronouncements critical of the administration and the majority,” he said.

Lagman also noted that those who refused to align with ruling minority by abstention are considered independent members of the House, not the minority.

He said Suarez was also disqualified for minority leadership because he voted for Alvarez, making him a member of the majority.

The petitioner also claimed that ten of the lawmakers who elected Suarez as minority leader soon returned to the majority coalition.

In July, Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco mentioned the possibility of game fixing. Tiangco previously quit his party, the United Nationalist Alliance, due to differences of views on political alliances.