Majority or opposition bloc? Belmonte still undecided

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. is torn between joining the “super majority” coalition of his prospective successor Pantaleon Alvarez, or staying with the Liberal Party (LP) in the opposition bloc.

“Whether to join the majority or be with the minority is strictly the business of the remaining LPs, it’s not mine at all. As you can see this party is one that asks everybody to be heard and their opinion is being considered,” Belmonte, the re- elected Quezon City congressman, said.

“Tentatively we want to have a decision ready by the time set forth by the majority,” Belmonte explained.

“Now, we are still discussing all the options; if you remember we were 106 (in LP). We continue to meet but each time we meet, our ranks are dwindling,” he said.

As it is now, the supermajority of PDP-Laban is also composed of the Nacionalista Party (NP), Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), National Union Party (NUP) and the 57 allied party-list groups.

At the same time, Belmonte commended Alvarez for successfully recruiting at least 90 lawmakers as new members of the ruling and dominant “Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban”).

The PDP-Laban, the party that carried President Duterte in the May 9 elections, in- creased its membership from three to 93 in the House of Representatives.

“We have to recognize one thing and I have to take off my hat to them – that the PDP-Laban had actually managed to grow this big now,” said Belmonte, a PDP-Laban member in the early ’90s.

Most of the new PDP-Laban recruits came from the LP who jumped ship after Manuel Roxas II lost in the presidential polls.

Belmonte said they would try to reach a consensus whether to join the supermajority before six in the evening of Tuesday or the scheduled deadline given to them to sign the coalition agreement.

There are now only 30 to 35 congressmen belonging to the LP.

A source hinted that the growing consensus is to reject the offer of PDP-Laban for LP to coalesce, especially if the condition to reduce their mem- bership to a very small size of 20 will be insisted by Alvarez.

A party with less than 25 members will not entitle any of its members to chair any House committee.

“If we will be reduced even to 25 members, there is no good reason to join the supermajority because we will be left out in the distribution of committee chairmanships and even representation in Commission on Appointments,” the source said.