ALBAY Representative Edcel Lagman said Friday, October 9, 2020, that President Rodrigo Duterte must enforce the term-sharing deal he brokered between Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco in July 2019.
He also advised the President to call for a special session so members of the House of Representatives could further deliberate on House Bill No. 7727, or the General Appropriations Bill.
"The President must call soonest the Congress to a special session so that the deliberations on the enactment of the national budget could resume and assure the timely passage of the national budget for 2021," Lagman said in a statement.
The lawmaker cited Section 15 of Article VI of the Constitution, which authorizes the President to "call a special session at any time."
Lagman said the President must enforce the term-sharing deal he brokered since it "binds his allies."
"Since Cayetano does not want to honor the '15-21' deal on the pretext that the majority of the Representatives want him to prolong his tenure as speaker, then it is incumbent upon Duterte to unequivocally enforce the term-sharing agreement because what the President has brokered must not be broken as it binds Duterte's allies," he said.
"Duterte must tell the members of the House and the people in no uncertain terms that the compromise must be respected and honored, and Cayetano must irrevocably resign and Velasco should take over as the new Speaker," he added.
Lagman also said Duterte must avoid any "ambivalent language" which would only lead to differing interpretations.
"Since the President said that he is not a lame duck, perforce, he must instruct his supermajority allies in the House to follow his clear and unambiguous solution to the impasse," he said.
"The tradition, albeit flawed, is that the Speaker is chosen in Malacañang, and the anointment is simply confirmed by the President's allies in the House of Representatives in an uncontested nominal voting," he added.
Duterte, in a recorded message Thursday night, asked House lawmakers to resolve the speakership row. He warned that he will intervene if the budget is delayed. (Jove Moya/VoxPop Philippines)