House Speaker-in-waiting Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco is a late addition to the very exclusive list of House of Representatives personalities invited to attend President Duterte's State-of-the-Nation Address at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City Monday.
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
In the final approved list of House attendees that was acquired by Manila Bulletin Sunday, Velasco was one of five new attendees in what is now a 30-person list.
Velasco's name was conspicuously absent in the initial list of House participants in the SoNA that was obtained by House reporters last Wednesday.
The solon, who is known to be very close with presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, is listed as Palace entourage for Monday's historic event, sources said.
Velasco and House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano of Taguig-Pateros district have a term-sharing agreement for the speakership in the 18th Congress. Under the gentleman's agreement that was brokered by no less than the Chief Executive, Velasco would take over the leadership at around November this year.
This will have given Cayetano 15 months at the helm, while the Marinduque solon will have the next 21 months to call himself Speaker before the 18th Congress and the Duterte administration for that matter ends.
The 75-year-old President had earlier announced that he would physically go to Batasang Pambansa, home of the House of Representatives, for the SONA this year despite the threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Palace decision triggered the enforcement of unprecedented health and safety protocols, as well as lessened attendance and physical media coverage for the annual event.
Sunday morning, a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test or swab test was administered on the attending House members and their staff. Those who will turn out negative of the new coronavirus will again undergo a rapid test Monday morning, the day of the SONA.
Those with positive results from either test will not be allowed to attend. Sources said the President will undergo a swab test right after his speech.
Like Velasco, presidential son House Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte is a late addition to the final list of attendees for Monday. The other three are Reps. Sharky Palma, JayJay Suarez, and Claudine Diana Bautista.
The initial list is composed Cayetano, House Deputy Speakers Johnny Pimentel, Luis Raymund Villafuerte, Dan Fernandez, Raneo Abu, Dong Gonzales, and Rodante Marcoleta; House Majority Floor Leader Martin Romualdez; House Minority Leader Benny Abante; House Deputy Minority Leader Janette Garin; House Secretary General Jose Luis Montales; House Deputy Secretary General Brian Raymund Yamsuan; House Sergeant-at-Arms Ramon Apolinario; and Reps. Robert Ace Barbers, Michael Defensor, Elpidio Barzaga, Eric Go Yap, Lani Cayetano, Juan Miguel Arroyo, Boying Remulla, Wes Gatchalian, Chicoy Alvarez, Divine Yu, Jonathan Sy-Alvarado, and Bambol Tolentino.