(Eagle News)–Those who plan to install Pampanga Rep. and now-Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the country’s first prime minister should “think twice,” Senator Panfilo Lacson said on Monday, July 24.
In a statement, Lacson, an opposition senator who left the country during Arroyo’s term as president after charges were filed against him in connection with the killings of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver in 2000, said this was because “the Senate, both majority and minority have agreed to close ranks to defend and assert our role under the 1987 Constitution in revising or amending the same.”
Lacson, who said he had to flee the country for security reasons, was later cleared by the Court of Appeals in 2011.
“That, I can say with certainty and conviction,” the senator said.
According to Lacson, “regardless of whether it was Rep. Arroyo or somebody else replacing the ousted Speaker, what happened yesterday is a strong argument against a parliamentary form of government where patronage politics plays a major, if not the only, role in selecting our country’s top leader.”
He noted that “even the traditionally symbolic mace was in a maze yesterday at the Batasan, not knowing whose authority it would represent between the two contending personalities.”
“If only for the timing and manner the coup d’etat in the House of Representatives was carried out, I would say it was awkward, ugly, low and disgraceful,” he said.
Arroyo’s election came prior to President Rodrigo Duterte’s third State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 23, during an informal voting of lawmakers that took place after the Lower House’s session was abruptly terminated by allies of Alvarez on the same day.
This was even with Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., Arroyo’s budget secretary, opposing the motion to adjourn the session.
The President’s speech was reportedly delayed for over an hour due to the leadership issue, with reports saying he had to speak to both Arroyo and Alvarez separately.
It was, however, Alvarez who sat beside the President during his speech, something reserved for the Speaker, after the alleged talk.
Following the President’s SONA, though, 238 members of the House stayed on to formally install Arroyo as Speaker in a special session.
The mace was not in the session at one point, prompting Nueva Ecija Rep. Magnolia Antonino to move to produce the same.
The session was suspended after presiding officer Andaya ordered the mace to be produced.
Deputy Speaker Fredenil Castro, however, moved to resume the session, noting that the mace was “merely symbolic.”
Over 100—184 lawmakers—voted for Arroyo to be Speaker, while 12 abstained.
Arroyo was deputy speaker of the House until she was removed from the position by Alvarez in March, after she voted against the death penalty bill.