WHY is the wife of Speaker Alvarez speaking out now?
Thewife of Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez finally spoke about her marital estrangement and claimed she was “abandoned” after he became the leader of the House of the Representatives last year.
“Actually I was abandoned right after the [State of the Nation Address last year] when he became the Speaker,” Emelita Alvarez told ABS-CBN News, admitting she had known of “his other relationship” even before that.
The marital problems of the Alvarez couple drew public attention in March when the Speaker parted ways with longtime ally, Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr., over a quarrel between their girlfriends.
“We’ve been together for almost 30 years and I’ve been there since the very start. That was in ’88,” she said in a mixture of Filipino and English, at one point trying to fight off tears.
“We’ve been through ups and downs. I’ve always been there and the people of Davao del Norte will testify that I was even the one who campaigned for him,” she said of her estranged husband, who did not respond to requests for comment.
Emelita said she would have kept quiet on her marital woes had ABS-CBN News not gone to her. “It’s only now when you came. I have no other choice but to answer,” she said.
Emelita even asked her daughter, Finance Undersecretary Paola Alvarez, to attend President Duterte’s Sona in her stead “just to avoid any untoward incident.”
But the television network asked her about her thoughts on her husband’s proposal to legalize divorce, which he referred to as “dissolution of marriage,” for unhappy spouses.
When the Speaker’s proposal was criticized because he would also be a beneficiary of the resulting law, Pantaleon said said he could practice polygamy because he was Manobo.
But Emelita said she was unaware of Alvarez’s conversion to “the religion of the Manobo tribe,” adding he was Catholic when they married.
Nonetheless, she opposed her estranged husband’s proposal because it puts women at a disadvantage, particularly in the burden of raising children.
“I’m talking now. I’m speaking in behalf of the Filipino people. I’m saying that the bill is gender biased. Women are always at the losing end,” she said.
She admitted she is still hurting from the separation but she’s trying to get on with life.
“There’s pain. I wouldn’t say there’s no pain because that would be hyprocritical, but, as I’ve told you, my faith is strong. It just hurts is all,” she added.
Despite the pain, however, she said she would not give up on marriage even after Alvarez left their home.
“Why should I give up? My relationship is not illicit. You may be talking about illicit affairs but mine is not. My relationship with him is legal. So I just leave it up to God. ” she said.
In February, the Speaker ordered the organization of congressional spouses and the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office to move out of the Batasan Pambansa.
Alvarez said there are more deputy speakers and partylist congressmen who need offices along with the House committees which also need rooms to hold hearings.
The Congressional Spouses Foundation Inc. (CSFI) is headed by Emelita but Pantaleon said the CSFI “cannot do anything anymore if I tell them to move out because Congress needs [the space].”
“We are doing here a function of government. We cannot have it here and support it because I will be dispensing public money for a private purpose,” Alvarez said.