By Ben Rosario
Heeding the advice of his father, President Rodrigo Duterte, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte decided on Saturday to drop plans to run for Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Davao City 1st district Rep. Paolo Duterte (MANILA BULLETIN)
Instead, the young Duterte said he will support the speakership bid of fellow Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, who is the nominee for Speaker of Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP).
“I have personally spoken to President Rodrigo Duterte Thursday night in Davao City regarding my plan to run for speaker of the House of Representatives. We both agreed that this will not be the right time for me to be Speaker and I can still help his administration from the House in a different capacity,” stated Rep. Duterte in a press statement issued yesterday.
He added: “As President of Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod, I will support the bid for speakership of Congressman Isidro Ungab from our sister party, Hugpong ng Pagbabago.”
According to the neophyte lawmaker, his father has already “been fully informed” of Ungab’s speakership bid.
Despite appeals from leaders of the administration coalition in the Lower House, the president declared he will no longer anoint his personal choice for the hotly contested speakership post.
However, recent developments indicated that senior Cabinet officials have been trying to influence Duterte to reconsider his decision and instead recommend a term sharing scheme between former foreign affairs secretary now Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, the dominant PDP-Laban’s official candidate for speaker.
Rep. Duterte decried the reported intervention of Cabinet officials, declaring on Tuesday that he will seek the speakership.
On Friday, the Davao City lawmaker joined Ungab and at least nine other congressmen representing HNP and partylist organizations, in forming the Duterte Coalition that declared participation in the search for a speaker.
The creation of the Duterte Coalition was seen by observers as a move aimed at forestalling the plan of Cabinet officials to win Duterte’s support and put in place a term-sharing scheme.
HNP chairperson Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte also assailed Cabinet officials for joining the fray in the speakership race, saying the plot to re-introduce the already rejected term-sharing scheme should be rejected.
Ungab is a returning congressman who used to hold the chairmanship posts of Committees on Ways and Means and on Appropriations, both powerful House panels.
He served as chairman of the two committees during the term of the late Speaker Prospero Nograles, who also haila from Davao City.