(UPDATED) Nearly 200 members of the House of Representatives on Monday, October 12, 2020, elected Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco as the new Speaker in a session held outside the Batasang Pambansa and questioned by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
In a meeting at the Celebrity Sports Plaza, 186 lawmakers also elected Pampanga Rep. Juan Pablo Bondoc as majority floor leader, Jocelyn Bighani Sipin as the new House secretary general and retired general Mao Aplasca as the new sergeant-at-arms.
They also declared their mace as official mace of the House. The mace is the symbol of the lower chamber’s authority. Under the Rules of the House, it should be displayed and borne by the sergeant-at-arms to enforce order on the floor while the House is in session.
Cayetano, in a virtual press conference held simultaneously with the Velasco-led session, branded the Velasco-led session as a “fake session”.
He insisted that he has the support of the majority of the 305 members of the lower chamber, citing a previous manifesto wherein 205 congressmen expressed support for him. With 186 voting for Velasco as Speaker, however, Cayetano said there are "flying voters" in the House.
“The last time I checked, ang Celebrity Sports Plaza ay hindi naman Kongreso (is not Congress). It creates a very, very disturbing precedent. Kung ang theory nila basta’t may quorum anywhere they can meet, then that means at any point and any day, I can bring 152 congressmen and do whatever I want in whatever part of the country. Napaka-delikado po no’n,” Cayetano said.
To the members of the House, he said, “Don’t throw the Constitution away. Don’t throw the Constitution to the waste basket,” he added.
Cayetano said the lower chamber will have an “honorable, orderly session” Tuesday, October 13, pursuant to President Rodrigo Duterte’s Proclamation No. 1027, which called for a special session to ensure the approval of the 2021 budget without delay.
He said deliberations on the 2021 budget will be done in three days, at most, if the majority of the membership cooperates.
Deliberations on the budget were terminated on October 6 and House Bill No. 7727 was approved on second reading. The House then suspended session, 11 days ahead of its scheduled recess on October 17.
To avoid any delay in the approval of the budget bill, President Rodrigo Duterte on October 9 issued Proclamation No. 1027, calling for a special session from October 13 to 16 to ensure passage of HB 7727, or the General Appropriations Bill.
The session conducted by Velasco's allies was held a day ahead of the special session.
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, via videoconferencing, discussed the legalities of holding the session outside the Batasang Pambansa and said it is “constitutional, valid, necessary and will correct the unconstitutional suspension of the session.”
Bondoc, as majority leader, then declared, “It has been proven without a doubt. We are in session and we have quorum. We are in order to conduct our business.”
Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza Jr., one of the 15 lawmakers who signed a manifesto calling on the super majority to install Velasco as Speaker, moved to declare the position of Speaker vacant.
After nominal voting, the lawmakers declared the position of Speaker vacant.
Eight members of the House then each took the floor and nominated Velasco as Speaker. All 186 congressmen present in the session voted in favor of Velasco.
Bondoc said the 186 votes cast in favor of each motion made during the session are more than the 151 required majority votes.
He also said any votes cast during the session are in order in accordance with Section 91, Rule 12 of the Rules of the House, which allows the conduct of session through electronic platforms.
Under Section 91, members of the House may register their votes through virtual conference, mobile phone numbers or other electronic accounts submitted earlier.
“All of us in attendance here have participated in the August daily nominal voting conducted through electronic platforms, through Zoom, through Viber, by texting. We’ve used our numbers and our electronic accounts and our votes have been recorded. Therefore, our votes today as registered through Section 91, Rule 12 are in order,” he said.
The fight over the speakership was supposed to have been resolved in July 2019 through the term-sharing agreement brokered by President Duterte. Under the agreement, Cayetano will serve as Speaker in the first 15 months until October 2020 and Velasco will take over in the next 21 months of the 18th Congress. (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)