PBA partylist Rep. Jericho Nograles said Sunday (Oct. 4) that the rules of the House of Representatives "were violated" when the plenary during its last week’s session decided to remove Deputy Speaker and 1-PACMAN Rep. Mikee Romero from his post.
(Mikee Romero blogspot / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
According to him, there was blatant violation of the House rules, specifically its Rule III Section 11 when Romero was demoted.
“A vacancy is created whenever any officers died, resigned, or permanently incapacitated or when the House declares any office vacant,” he told the DZBB in an interview.
“Sa pagkakaalam ko si former Deputy Speaker Romero ay hindi naman namatay, hindi naman sya nagresign, hindi naman sya permanently incapacitated at wala namang motion sa floor declaring the seat of Mikee Romero vacant, dahil kung mayroong vacancy in the deputy speakership , eh dumadaan yan sa election,” Nograles said, rejecting the House’s plenary decision to remove Romero and replace him with Capiz 2nd District Rep. Fredenil Castro.
(To my knowledge, former Deputy Speaker Romero did not die, he did not resign, he is not permanently incapacitated, and there was no motion on the floor declaring the seat of Mikee Romero vacant, because if there is vacancy in the deputy speakership, there should be an election.)
During the House plenary session on Friday (Oct. 2), Romero, who reportedly sided with Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, was removed from his post after Deputy Majority Leader and Camiguin lone District Rep. Xavier Jesus Romualdo moved to replace him with Castro. Romualdo’s motion was approved by the plenary.
Citing House rules, Nograles said the officers of the Lower Chamber namely the Speaker and the Deputy Speakers "shall be elected at the commence of its Congress.”
“'Yung election nila is by election of the majority vote of all members of Congress. Wala po tayong narinig na election duon, so ang nakita natin dun is a substitution, wala po yan sa rules of the House of Representatives,” he said.
(Their election is by election of the majority vote of all members of Congress. We haven’t heard any election there, so what we saw there is substitution, that’s not in the rules of the House of Representatives.)
"At napaka-weird yan dahil pag ganyan ang practice. eh di ibig sabihin, puwede isubstitute ang Speaker without election,” he said.
(That’s very weird, because if that is the practice, it means, you can substitute the Speaker without election.)
He said if the plenary’s removal of Romero will become a practice, other officers of the House, including the Sergeant-at-Arms and House Secretary General can be substituted without election and without vacancy.
"The rules of the House of Representatives were violated with the substitution of Fred Castro and Mike Romero. Nilabag po ang rules ng House of Representatives (The rules of the House of Representatives have been violated),” Nograles pointed out.
He maintained as absurd the House proceedings last Sept. 30 wherein Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano offered to resign and his allies rejected his resignation, saying that it was "a waste of legislative time.”