Rep. Duterte promised to help me — Cayetano

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential son and incoming Davao City Rep. Paulo Duterte has promised to help presumptive speaker Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano unite fractious administration allies in the House of Representatives.

“I asked him if he could help me by accepting the position of deputy speaker for political affairs…so I think it’s a very important and crucial development… I appreciate that he told me that as long as we follow the direction of the President, he is there (to help),” Cayetano said in Filipino in a radio interview on Friday night.

He was interviewed in the middle of his meeting with the President’s son, who heads the Duterte Coalition, composed of more than 80 House members, many of whom are neophytes or first-term lawmakers.

Rep. Duterte has invited members of his coalition and other House colleagues to a breakfast meeting at 8 o’clock tomorrow at the House. Cayetano issued a separate invitation for a 9 a.m. breakfast.

Cayetano said he saw nothing wrong with having two breakfasts.

A congressman who received an invitation from the camp of Rep. Duterte said he believed the agenda for the meeting would be the speakership term sharing brokered by President Duterte between Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco.

The presidential son and his sister Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio have opposed the division of the speaker’s three-year term of office, saying it would disrupt the work of the House and slow down the last three years of their father’s administration.

Cayetano said the job of the younger Duterte as deputy speaker for political affairs would be to “unite the different factions, different ideologies and different political parties in Congress and the nation.”

“We will put the political parties under him so there would be reporting, and we will know which parties are being left out,” he said.

Cayetano also announced that he would be meeting with his supporters today “so we could announce who would be the other deputy speakers, the minority leader, majority leader and chairmen of the committee on accounts and committee on appropriations.”

The President has recommended Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez to be majority leader.

Cayetano has tapped Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales to be deputy speaker for internal affairs. He was grooming Gonzales to be his majority leader before Duterte endorsed Romualdez.

The presumptive speaker said it was important that the committee on appropriations be organized before President Duterte submits his proposed national budget for next year middle of next month.

The committee’s chairmanship had been offered to Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, who held the post in the 16th Congress.

Cayetano reiterated that he would respect the term sharing between him and Velasco.

Rep. Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman, who supports the term sharing arrangement recommended by the President, said he has no doubt that it would be followed.

“Speaker Alan will make good his promise. He will obey the President. We all will,” he said.

Romero, who heads the 54-member Party-list Coalition, noted that Cayetano has been finding ways on how the leadership of the House and the work of its various committees would not be disrupted after 15 months.

“He has told us that he would want that the committees would not be affected by the future leadership turnover,” he said.

He said one formula being explored is for Cayetano to designate committee chairman and Velasco would name the vice chairmen.

“After 15 months, there would be a switch of committee assignments. That would not be disruptive, since both chairman and vice chairman would be familiar with the work of their committee. In effect, it’s a revolving door setup. That might just work,” he said.