Expertise and gravitas
Electoral campaigning for the midterm polls has been underway since early February. Based on previous election years, the political temperature is expected to rise further when candidates for the House of Representatives (HoR) and local positions start their 45-day campaign period on March 29.
Meanwhile, the economy is at a virtual standstill — taking the cue from a ban on public works projects until a month after the elections.
At the Philippine Stock Exchange, IPOs and follow-on offerings have been postponed due to timing issues — ostensibly for better market conditions after the May 13 voting results are officially confirmed.
Although it is still too early to tell who the eventual winners would be, the race for Speaker of the congressional lower house has already started. Aside from being the fourth most powerful official in the land, the House Speaker sets the tone and agenda of the HoR. He or she should essentially be an effective leader to balance the myriad interests of almost 300 legislators and ensure that they toe the majority party line.
Candidates for the speakership need to build a sense of trust and loyalty among fellow lawmakers. They should possess the gravitas that sets them apart from the others, just like former Speakers Sergio Osmeña, Manuel Roxas, Quintin Paredes, Jose Yulo, and Cornelio Villareal, who embodied the power and dignity of the HoR as a legislative institution.
Several names have cropped up but only three appear to be serious contenders for Speaker in the next Congress: former Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, former Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, and Rep. Lord Allan Velasco. All three are lawyers, but the similarities end there.
Mr. Velasco practiced law in the Supreme Court office of his father, former Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco, Jr. He served as provincial administrator of Marinduque and provincial chapter president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.
During the 2013 elections, he lost to Regina Ongsiako Reyes but contested Ms. Reyes’ victory, claiming she was an American citizen. party and the Philippine Constitution Association. He lost when he ran for the Senate in 2016. When you search for him on Google, his name cropped up as the one who paid the $20,000 dinner bill for the entourage of then President and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at New York City’s posh Le Cirque restaurant in 2009.
Among the three contenders, Mr. Cayetano is the most experienced in terms of lawmaking. At the age of 27, he won a congressional seat in 1998 as representative of the then lone district of Taguig-Pateros, where he earned the moniker “Batang Compañero” because of his eloquence and strong advocacy against graft.
After completing three terms in the HoR, Mr. Cayetano ran for senator in 2007 and won as a candidate of the Nacionalista Party. He succeeded the late Sen. Joker Arroyo as chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee, where he exposed several corruption scandals. During his second term in the upper chamber, he was elected Senate majority leader in 2013.
He also chaired the Senate’s committee on rules and foreign relations committee.
In the 2016 elections, Mr. Cayetano was President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s vicepresidential running mate. His stint as DFA Secretary in the Duterte Cabinet required a balancing act of mastering the art of diplomacy to promote and protect the Philippines’ interests in the global arena while maintaining cordial relations with other countries.
Although Mr. Cayetano may not be a card-carrying member of the ruling PDP-Laban party, he can be trusted to carry out the legislative agenda of Mr. Duterte. On the other hand, Mr. Romualdez is known to be a loyalist of Ms. Arroyo, while Mr. Velasco is a latecomer in the game after leaving the National Unity Party and transferring to PDP-Laban in 2016.
Next to basketball and beauty pageants, political elections are the favorite obsession of many Filipinos — and the upcoming race for the speakership promises to make the May 2019 polls very interesting indeed.