Gullas belies accusations of turncoatism

CEBU — Rep. Eduardo Gullas parried suggestions that he is "scrambling to get on board" the erstwhile opposition coalition, now the administration bandwagon.

Gullas said in a press conference the other day that there is no headlong rush on his part in the wake of the sudden change in leadership because he had become part of a "de facto opposition coalition" even before the impeachment trial of ousted President Joseph Estrada began.

Gullas reminded his critics that he resigned from both the then ruling LAMP (Lapian ng Masang Pilipino) coalition and his House majority leadership last Nov. 3.

Gullas said it is unfair for his critics to call him a political turncoat eyeing the spoils of an opposition victory because he said he, in fact, paid a lot for his decision to bolt LAMP.

On Nov. 2, or the day before he announced his decision to part ways with Estrada, Gullas said Estrada assured him of the House speakership, in place of then Speaker Manuel Villar, whom Estrada already suspected of being about ready to bolt LAMP.

Then on Nov. 4, Gullas said he became the 35th congressman to sign the verified complaint for impeachment against Estrada. This act, he said, made him a member of the de facto opposition coalition.

He said there were about 40 of them from LAMP who came to be known as the "Villar-Gullas conscience bloc" and who joined 32 other lawmakers from Lakas-NUCD, 12 from the breakaway faction of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) and nine from the Liberal Party in signing the impeachment complaint. — Freeman News Service