From left to right: President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Vice President Sara Duterte (Speaker’s office, Rep. Arroyo's office, Facebook)

Deputy Speaker and former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo says that she would never do anything to destroy the "UniTeam" of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte.

Arroyo, in a Facebook post Sunday morning, May 28, said that she herself had a hand in the formation of the UniTeam.

"I made a humble contribution to the joining of forces that became the UniTeam, and the resulting supermajority in the House is a major force for delivering our President’s agenda. Thus, I would never take any action to destroy it," wrote the Pampanga 2nd district representative.

The UniTeam ticket led by Marcos and Duterte--darlings of the north and south, respectively--dominated the May 2022 elections. This was punctuated by Marcos and Duterte's majority vote victories in the presidential and vice presidential race, respectively.

Arroyo began the current 19th Congress as the senior deputy speaker, making her the second highest-ranked House member next to Speaker Martin Romualdez.

But on May 17, the House leadership "demoted" Arroyo to one of eight deputy speakers. An alleged ouster plot against Romualdez--supposedly hatched by Arroyo--then began to spread.

The former chief executive has since addressed this by saying that being Speaker is no longer part of her "political objectives".

Romualdez is Marcos' top ally in the legislature and--being his cousin--is arguably his most trusted lieutenant.

The Leyte 1st district congressman also served as one of Duterte's two campaign managers during last year's polls.