GMA is back

AOnly a graceful exit was the consolation for Alvarez who got to preside for the last time the President’s SONA.

fter having repeatedly declined appeals by her allies at the 17th Congress, former president and now Pampanga Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo could no longer stop the tide of discontent against House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. The fate awaiting Alvarez finally fell on him when he was officially removed as Speaker and replaced by GMA – her initials – who finally accepted the House leadership for the third and last regular sessions of the 17th Congress.

Alvarez could have avoided the ignominy of his bitter ouster had he heeded much earlier the signs of his weakening hold on the Speakership. He could have taken the cue from partymate and counterpart, former Senate president Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. Alvarez is the secretary-general while Pimentel is the president of the PDP-Laban which became the ruling majority of the 17th Congress.

The erstwhile Senate chief gracefully stepped down in May this year from the loose coalition they called as “super majority” that he and Alvarez organized when they first convened the 17th Congress in July 2016. By a majority vote of Senators, Pimentel who is running for re-election in May 2019, stepped down to give way to Sen. Vicente Sotto III as the new Senate president.

Sotto, the most senior member of the chamber, is not a member of PDP-Laban but he belongs to the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), which is also allied with the administration.

GMA herself became a full-pledged member of the PDPLaban and took her oath before no less than Alvarez himself in October last year. She was previously head of her own KAMPI-Lakas party which joined the “super majority” in Congress. She brought along her loyal Lakas-CMD and former Cabinet members: former agriculture chief Rep. Arthur Yap (Bohol), Rep. Xavier Jesus Romualdo (Camiguin), former agrarian reform chief Nasser Pangandaman and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority chief Raul Lambino.

The ouster of Alvarez came a few hours before President Rodrigo Duterte was supposed to deliver his third state of the nation address (SONA) at the traditional joint opening sessions of the Senate and the House at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City. Obviously, even Malacañang Palace was caught off-guard of the brewing ouster plot that would take place on the day of President Duterte’s SONA.

Actually, the ouster plot against Alvarez was not a surprise development because it came out in the open even before the Lower House officially resumed sessions earlier in the morning last Monday. Apparently, the camp of Alvarez already got wind about the ouster plot as they went through the motions and script of approving resolutions to mark the opening regular sessions at the House.

On top of the agenda or order of business for that day was the ratification of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), now renamed as the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL). So before the plotters could deliver the final blow to him, the loyal allies of Alvarez suspended the sessions and with it, the BOL got stalled also.

The camp of Alvarez further made sure the House mace – the official seal/symbol of the Chamber – and House secretariat wouldn’t be around to legitimize the ascent into power of GMA.

So it was Alvarez and his loyal leaders like House majority leader Ilocos Norte Rodolfo Fariñas who welcomed President Duterte whose helicopter arrived an hour before his scheduled SONA. Along with their respective counterparts led by Sotto and Senate majority leader Miguel Zubiri, Alvarez and Fariñas were the ones who attended the traditional greet and meet with the leaders of both chambers at the Batasan lounge.

As confirmed later by Sotto, President Duterte nearly walked out of his SONA after the camp of Alvarez tried but failed to fight off their unceremonious exit as House leaders.

A seasoned comedian before he turned to politics, Sotto quoted himself telling the President: “Sabi ko, Mayor, sa Senate ka na lang mag SONA!”

Sotto’s joke diffused an otherwise tense situation while Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea bridged between the camps of Alvarez and GMA. But the Davao del Norte Congressman and his allies already lost the numbers on the speakership battle.

Only a graceful exit was the consolation for Alvarez who got to preside for the last time the President’s SONA.

More than 200 members of the House of Representatives voted to replace Alvarez with GMA as Speaker. Under House rules, at least half of the total membership – currently at 290 – plus one vote is considered majority, or these are about 147 votes. Only 12 House members from the so-called Makabayan bloc of left-leaning lawmakers did not vote for GMA.

We may not be operating under a parliamentary system but it was a vote of no confidence for the Speaker.

As elected leaders of Congress, this is a parliamentary rule they swore to respect and uphold. The decision of the majority prevails in democratic set-up. Because of this latest political development, talks of GMA gearing up to become Prime Minister are again being revived.

This comes at a time the draft of the proposed shift to federal system of government in the Philippines pushed by President Duterte was already completed and submitted to him. Constitutional Commission (Con-com) and former Senate president Aquilino Pimentel Jr. cited GMA can run for president again in the 2022 elections under a federal charter because there is no provision that prohibits her from seeking presidency.

Next to the late president Ferdinand Marcos who stayed in office at Malacañang Palace for nearly two decades, GMA served for over nine years when she took over from ousted president Joseph Estrada.

GMA is no stranger in staging successful ouster as she did to become as now the Speaker. While she was vice president, GMA was installed to succeed Estrada in January 2001 following the EDSA-2 power grab.

Now 71 years old, GMA is herself serving her third and last term in Congress. No longer restrained by neck brace, GMA is ready to engage Alvarez and his loyal allies now as the newest House minority bloc. GMA is back in action.