It all seemed so simple then. We had a two party-system before 1972 —the Nacionalsta Party and the Liberal Party -- and whichever party had the most members in the House of Representatives elected the Speaker. The other party elected the Minority Leader.
Today we have a multi-party system and in the 18th Congress which will open on Monday, July 22, there is no single party as majority in the chamber. There are 84 PDP-Laban, 42 Nacionalista, 36 Nationalist People’s Coalition, and 25 National Unity Party members. They are known to be pro-Duterte solons and together they hold a majority of 187 in the 304-member Congress. They could not decide who among them would be Speaker, so that President Duterte had to step in and make his suggestion -- Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano of the NP for 15 months, then Rep. Allan Lord Velasco of PDP-Laban for the remaining 21 months.
There is a similar problem of leadership among the many smaller minority parties in the House. There are 18 Liberal, 11 Lakas, 61 representing various party-list organizations, and so many others representing local parties. Who among them will now serve as Minority Leader?
Rep. Edcel Lagman of the LP, who led a vocal opposition group known as the Magnificent 7 in the last Congress, has expressed concern that the majority in the new Congress will try to also fill the Minority Leader position, as it did in the last Congress. The president of the LP, Sen. Francis Pangilinan, has also added his view: “I believe that a strong minority is essential to our democracy,” he said.
It is indeed much more difficult to choose Majority and Minority Leaders when so many parties are involved. The majority parties got President Duterte to help them. The many minority groups, however, have no one to turn to.
It is a truly difficult situation but the members of Congress must make a strong effort to stay true to the concept of majority and minority leadership in Congress After the 187 congressmen in the four pro-Duterte parties have chosen the Speaker, they should leave the rest -- 117 – to select the Minority Leader.
It will not be easy to achieve this, as the majority leadership might want tighter control of House proceedings so as to ensure the swift passage of administration bills. But in the interest of the democratic ideal of free interaction between the majority and the minority, the latter should be allowed to elect their own Minority Leader in the House.