The number of congressmen present when the House of Representatives passed on second reading the 2021 General Appropriations Act was less than the required quorum, thus, making the proceedings questionable, if not outright illegal.

The lack of quorum and the unilateral decision of the House leadership  to adjourn without the acquiescence of the Senate are among the issues raised by Buhay Partylist Rep. Lito Atienza who assailed the Tuesday proceedings as a squid tactic of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano to evade an alleged impending ouster as House leader.

“This proves beyond doubt that Speaker Cayetano is desperately hanging on. He has just publicly confirmed that he is losing ground that’s why he did it,” said Atienza, an independent opposition lawmaker.

He added: “He didn’t care about Constitutional integrity, throwing everything into the air and making Congress go on a long vacation.”

Atienza accused Cayetano of violating the rules of the Lower House, noting that this happened several times since the fateful Malacanang meeting with President Duterte and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, who had declared he would take over the speakership post on October 14.

“We were muted on Zoom and all our objections were thrown out the window,” Atienza said.

The former Manila mayor forwarded photographs allegedly taken during the second reading voting. 

A notice from the Zoom administrator prohibited lawmakers from “unmuting” themselves as the “viva voce voting” on the budget measure took place.

Atienza said this makes the Tuesday plenary proceedings a sham.

The number of participants in the Zoom meeting indicated that there were only 118 participants present, that included secretariat staff who are not allowed to vote.  There were at least 25 congressmen personally present in the plenary.

“Pag natatalo ka na, guluhin mo na lang ang mesa, sunugin mo na lang ang bahay, ‘ika nga! (When you’re about to lose, create disorder, set the house on fire, they say),” Atienza said.

Meanwhile, Velasco’s camp claimed that Duterte had personally asked the Marinduque lawmaker to pursue the term sharing agreement that starts on October 14.

Velasco and Duterte met Monday night in Malacanang, in what the solon’s camp described as a “casual and like a father-son conversation.”

“That's why we expect Speaker Alan Cayetano to resign on October 14 and to abide by the term sharing agreement because his time is already up,” the Velasco camp’s statement read.