"MUKHANG ako pa naman." (It seems I still am)
This was the response of House Speaker and Davao del Norte Representative Pantaleon Alvarez when asked by reporters on who the leader of the House of Representatives is on Monday evening, July 23.
Alvarez represented the House during President Rodrigo Duterte's State of the Nation Address (Sona) and took his place at the rostrum at the Batasang Pambansa alongside the President and Senate President Vicente Sotto III.
The President's third Sona started a little over an hour late because of the shake-up at the House which ousted Alvarez and installed former President and Pampanga 2nd District Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the new Speaker.
As of 7 p.m. Monday, the House was conducting a special session to formalize its earlier decision.
At least 161, out of the 287 members of the House, signed a manifesto declaring Arroyo as their new leader during an informal session shortly before the Sona was scheduled to start at 4 p.m. Monday.
What happened during the one-hour informal session was unclear as the microphone was turned off.
Representative Miro Quimbo said 12 members of the House abstained in the voting.
Among them were opposition lawmakers Edcel Lagman, Tom Villarin, Teddy Baguilat, Kaka Bag-ao and Gary Alejano.
The ouster of Alvarez was followed by Arroyo's oath taking before the youngest lawmaker at the House of Representatives Kabuhayan Party-list Rep. Dennis Laogan.
The media tried to reach Arroyo but she refused to be interviewed.
Quimbo said some will call the decision to declare Arroyo as House leader a valid elections while some will call it a trump election.
He said the majority agreed to put the issue of the change of House leadership into a vote as they want their leader to be unequivocally supported.
"Hindi pwede yung nagdadalawang isip ang iba so pag may challenge yung leadership you put it into a vote which we agreed to but we did not take sides," he said.
Quimbo said what happened earlier is not ruled by what the law states.
He said the House was governed by tradition "majority wins."
Quimbo said that the move of the House members is unprecedented. "This does not happen since the Congress was established," he said.
Opposition
Gabriela Party-list Reps. Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas said they will not support Arroyo even if she is a woman.
"Filipino women do not tolerate corrupt people in power, even if it is a 'she'," they said in a joint statement.
"Hindi pwede i-recycle ang mga abusado sa kapangyarihan," they added.
The lawmakers said they will not forget the 1,206 victims of extra-judicial killings, 206 victims of enforced disappearances, more than 2,000 cases of illegal arrests and thousands of forced evacuation during the nine-year presidency of Arroyo. (