(Eagle News) — Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is the new Speaker of the House of Representatives.
She was seen taking her oath, replacing Pantaleon Alvarez, minutes before President Rodrigo Duterte arrived at the Batasang Pambansa on Monday, July 23.
The microphone at the podium, where she took her oath before a lawmaker, had been notably turned off.
A PTV video showed, however, that it was Alvarez who greeted the President upon his arrival at the Batasang Pambansa for his third State of the Nation Address.
Reports said the President had to speak separately to Arroyo and Alvarez, who ended up sitting beside Duterte during his SONA, something reserved for the Speaker of the House.
After the SONA, however, several members of the Lower Chamber, 244 all in all, stayed on to repeat the process, after some questioned Arroyo’s oathtaking.
Over 100, or 184, voted to elect Arroyo this time around, with 12 abstaining.
Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco may reportedly replace Rodolfo Fariñas as majority leader.
Rumors had it Davao Mayor Sara Duterte was behind the ouster plot against Alvarez, with whom she had a word war after she established a regional party in Davao.
Alvarez had said she was a member of the opposition, but she denied this, saying the move had the blessing of her father, the President.
Earlier, the Lower Chamber adjourned without the ouster plot pushing through against Alvarez, and without the House ratifying the Bangsamoro Organic Law.