Moves on for leadership changes in Congress

Tiangco, Sotto open to change

MANILA, Philippines — Amid the weak showing of the administration candidates in the midterm elections, reports are swirling about possible leadership changes in the two chambers of Congress.

Incoming senator Vicente Sotto III – on his fifth term in the Senate – admitted that he would be willing to return as Senate president if he gets the majority vote of 13 senators.

In a Zoom interview with reporters yesterday, Sotto said three to four senators talked to him and asked him if he would be willing to return to his previous post in the incoming 20th Congress.

“If I have the numbers, I will accept. They are saying their peers are ready to support me. I said if we have 13 votes, I will accept,” Sotto said.

At the House of Representatives, those occupying leadership posts denied any looming change. But Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, campaign manager of the Alyansa, said a gathering was called yesterday by Speaker Martin Romualdez amid the rumored leadership change.

Tiangco told “Storycon” on One News that several congressmen asked him if they should attend the meeting and sign statements of support for Romualdez, cousin of President Marcos.

Sotto served as Senate president from 2018 to 2022. He had served in the Senate under different Congresses in 1992-2004 and 2010-2022.

Sotto said he has not yet talked to current Senate President Francis Escudero about taking up the post. “We never discussed this. We will talk it over for sure if my colleagues will speak.”

During the Kapihan sa Senado forum on Thursday, Escudero shrugged off the possibility that he will lose the Senate presidency to Sotto.

Escudero said the Senate presidency is dependent on the will of the majority of senators, as he asked for calm in the aftermath of a hotly contested midterm elections.

“All 24 senators think that way, that whoever has the numbers should not turn down the responsibility and challenge given to them by majority senators, who put their confidence in them,” he said.

If not given the chance to take up the Senate presidency, Sotto said he wanted to chair the Senate ethics committee, citing the need to bring back decorum in the upper chamber.

“There should be ethical standards for senators. We should be strict with the rules, if we want the public to see a decent image of the Senate that it was before,” Sotto said.

Speakership post

Tiangco confirmed on Storycon that several lawmakers brought up the idea of a leadership change at the House.

Asked directly if he is open to accepting the speakership, Tiangco responded: “Yes.”

“I’m not actively seeking it, but I just want to help the President,” he added, saying his colleagues under the current leadership had wasted Marcos’ political capital.

“I have to protect the President. He’s paying for things that he did not have anything to do with,” Tiangco said, citing the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte and the controversy over the unprogrammed funds in the 2025 national budget.

Rumors have been swirling that Tiangco, himself a relative of Marcos, was being eyed to replace Romualdez.

“I remain loyal to my bosses. I don’t compromise them. I don’t put them in a difficult situation. I don’t preempt them. I do what is good for them and I will stay loyal to them always,” he added.

However, House Deputy Speaker David Suarez denied that there is an impending speakership change in the incoming 20th Congress.

“We believe that continuity is most important for most of us in Congress and we fully support the leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez,” Suarez said on the sidelines of the first meeting of political parties of the House.

“The case is, for us in Lakas-CMD, we are the dominant party… we have around 105 members elected congressmen and we are 100 percent behind the leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez. Of course, under the banner of continuity,” he said.

Backlash

It was Duterte’s impeachment that triggered the problems for the administration’s senatorial lineup, Tiangco said.

Describing the move as “self-inflicted,” Tiangco told Storycon that Duterte’s impeachment was a unifying factor for voters in Mindanao.

“In our October surveys, nine Alyansa candidates were winning in Mindanao. When our survey arrived after the impeachment before the incident of bringing the former president to The Hague, there were only four,” he said.

While the former president’s arrest was a contributing factor to Alyansa’s dismal performance, Tiangco said there were external factors related to that incident that were out of their control.

“It all started in the impeachment that I tried to prevent them from doing,” he said.

Asked if the administration’s machinery failed during the campaign, Tiangco said it was difficult to roll out because the “candidates themselves were fighting for survival.”

However, Suarez dismissed Tiangco’s claims of political backlash over Duterte’s impeachment, pointing out that 86 percent of lawmakers who signed the complaint were reelected.

Suarez also belied Tiangco’s allegations that some congressmen were forced to sign the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte for fear that their congressional budget would not be released to them.

“There is no truth to that matter. No one was forced, asked to sign. Everybody signed the impeachment on their own volition,” Suarez said. — Janvic Mateo, Jose Rodel Clapano