VP Sara to Pulong: go for Minority Leader if you can’t be House Speaker

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 May) — Vice-president said her brother, Paolo, who won a third term as 1^st district Representative to Congress, should eye the post of House Speaker or at the very least, as Minority Leader, when the 20^th Congress opens on June 30. 

“Well, sinabi ko sa kanya, kung hindi ka manalo ng Speaker, then kunin mo yung minority, di ba? But wala pa siyang sagot. (Well, I told him, if he does not win as Speaker, then get the minority. But he hasn’t answered me).  So I guess he’s still thinking about it,” she said. 

^{Rep. Paolo “Pulong” Duterte during a Hakbang ng Maisug Rally in Davao City in January 2024. MindaNews file photo by MANMAN DEJETO}

The Speaker is the fourth highest official in the Philippine government. He is elected by a majority vote of all members at the commencement of each Congress.

The Speaker presides over the session; decides on all questions of order, subject to appeal by any member; signs all acts, resolutions, memorials, writs, warrants and subpoenas issued by or upon order of the House; appoints, suspends, dismisses or disciplines House personnel; and exercise administrative functions.

The Minority Leader is the acknowledged spokesperson of the minority party in the House. But it does not necessarily follow that he is also the leader of the minority because the minority in the House may be composed of one or more political groupings.

The Minority Leader is elected in party caucus of all Members of the House in the minority party. Like the Speaker and the Majority Leader, he is an ex-officio member of all standing Committees.

The Vice President clarified she is not backing any candidate for House speaker or Senate president.

Duterte resigned as chair of Lakas–CMD last May 19, 2023, citing the need to distance herself from “political toxicity” and “execrable political power play.”

Her resignation followed the demotion of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s demotion from her post as Senior Deputy Speaker to one of the Deputy Speakers.

There will be two Dutertes in the 20^th Congress: Paolo on his third and last term as 1^st district representative and his eldest son Omar, on his first term as 2^nd district representative. The representative of the city’s 3^rd district, Isidro Ungab, is a party-mate of the Duterte-organized Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod.”

Omar’s brother, Rodrigo “Rigo” Duterte II, topped the council race and will likely serve as Acting Vice Mayor when uncle Sebastian, the outgoing mayor who was elected as Vice Mayor last May12, assumes the post of acting City Mayor while former President Rodrigo Duterte, who won an 8^th term as city mayor here, is detained in The Hague, the Netherlands, to face charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court. (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)