President Duterte may no longer meet with two contending lawmakers on the House leadership issue after he already reminded them not to take the proposed 2021 national budget "hostage," Malacañang said Wednesday.

According to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, the President has communicated what he wanted to say to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco in their previous meetings and would keep a hands-off stance on the speakership conflict.

The President previously met with Cayetano and Velasco to remind them to honor the agreement to split the term of the House Speaker. Duterte later held separate meetings with the two congressmen amid the escalating feud over the speakership.

"Siguro wala na. Nasabi na niya lahat ang dapat niyang sasabihin sa parehong partido (Maybe, no more. He has said all that  he wanted to say to the two parties)," Roque said over state television when asked if the President will hold another meeting with the two lawmakers.

"Ang kanyang hiling, ‘wag i-hostage ang budget, kinakailangan natin itong COVID-19 budget na ito (His appeal is not to take the budget hostage. We need this COVID-19 budget)," Roque said.

After the President’s meeting with Cayetano and Velasco last week, the camp of the Marinduque lawmaker reportedly claimed that he would take over the House leadership by Oct. 14.

Ahead of the supposed turnover, Cayetano made a sudden offer to resign which majority of the lawmakers have rejected. Velasco however insisted that the term-sharing deal brokered by the President must still be honored.

Under the deal forged last year, Cayetano will lead the House for 15 months of the 18th Congress while Velasco would take over for the rest of the 21 months. 

Roque maintained that the President would not interfere with the leadership conflict, saying it is an internal matter of the Lower House.  The Palace official however remained mum if there was really an agreement on the October 14 turnover of House leadership during the President’s meeting.

"The House is an independent branch of government and the President has taken the view that the leadership row is a purely internal matter of the House of Representatives," he said.

He said the President initially hoped that Cayetano and Velasco would  honor their term-sharing deal but if the latter failed to muster enough votes, he could not do anything about it.

After Cayetano's resignation offer was rejected by his colleagues, Roque said the President insisted that he would "stay out" of the internal matter of the House.

When Velasco recently met with the President to seek permission to run for House Speaker, Roque said Duterte told him that it was his right to seek the House speakership in line with his term-split deal with Cayetano.

He said it was now up to Velasco "to get the votes if he can muster the votes" in line with the House rules on the speakership race.

"I guess, if you construe it, of course, it is the right of any congressman to run for the Speakership. He probably has the right too because he had an agreement that he will be Speaker after 15 months," he said.

"But in the end, it’s still an issue of numbers because the Constitution – and even Congressman Allan Velasco acknowledges this – the Constitution clearly says that it is only members of the House of the Representatives that can choose their leaders," he added.