Navotas City lone district Rep. Toby Tiangco has blamed the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte as reason for the administration Senate bets' subpar performance in the May 12 elections, particularly in Mindanao.
But a fellow majority solon in House Deputy Speaker Quezon 2nd district Rep. David "Jay-Jay" Suarez has something to say about that assessment.
Tiangco, campaign manager of the administration-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas ticket, spoke on DZBB radio Thursday in a bid to defend himself from criticism over the slate’s worse-than-expected poll outcome.
"This all started when the impeachment was filed. Before the elections, we commissioned a survey, in November, December and we have tracked Mindanao...If in the past, our candidates were getting votes from Mindanao, now no more. In the past, they chose candidates that they liked. Now, it changed. Their choice of candidates was whoever would not vote in favor of the impeachment,” Tiangco said in Filipino.
“Why would they blame something on me, something of their own doing? I know who are the people pinning the blame on me. They are those who persistently initiated the filing of the impeachment against the Vice President. Why did they push for the impeachment, in the first place?" he said.
Tiangco added that the defeat incurred by Alyansa was "self-infected".
Suarez, one of the consistent critics of Vice President Duterte in the 19th Congress, doesn't agree with Tiangco, who according to some pundits might vie for the Speakership in the upcoming 20th Congress.
"While I do respect the opinions of Toby Tiangco with regards to the matter, although I do not subscribe to it, but syempre bilang isang campaign manager siguro nakikita niya yung terrain. Mas nauunawaan niya yun (But of course, as a campaign manager, he probably sees the terrain. He understands it better)," he said in an interview Friday, May 16 at Makati Shangri-La Hotel.
Pro-impeachment solons won big
"Unang-una, kung titignan po natin yung winning rate nung mga congressmen na pumirma sa impeachment, i think that was 86 percent. So sila po talaga dapat yung makaramdam kung mayroon man," he said.
(First of all, if we look at the winning rate of the congressmen who signed the impeachment, I think it was 86 percent. So they should really be the ones to feel it, if there is anything.)
Vice President Duterte's home turf is Mindanao. Some 215 House members signed her impeachment complaint last February.
Suarez also denied Tiangco's claim that some of his colleagues signed the complaint in exchange for budget considerations.
"There's no truth to that allegation, there's no truth to that matter. No one was coerced, no one was...asked to sign. Everybody signed the impeachment based on their own volition," he added.
From an expected eight to 10 Alyansa bets as per pre-election surveys, only six of the administration candidates secured seats in the "Magic 12".