1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez (left), Davao del Norte 1st district Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez (PPAB, Facebook)

Davao del Norte 1st district Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez's accusation that the House of Representatives is "drunk with power" is merely an attempt to divert from the issue.

Thus, said 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez, who nonetheless noted that he respected the former House Speaker's opinion.

"For that response po, I feel like nalilihis po ulit ‘yung issue (I feel like it's a diversion from the issue) instead of answering it head-on po. But then we respect it,” Gutierrez said during a press conference Monday, Feb. 17.

Alvarez, a Duterte family ally, hurled the tirade at the House as his own reaction to solons' criticism of him after he led the filing of falsification of legislative documents charges against Speaker Martin Romualdez in connection with the blank budget issue.

Alvarez also blasted the lower chamber for allegedly acting like a criminal court. This was in reference to the House's tendency to detain resource persons during the conduct of public hearings. 

The party-list congressman said he respects the right of his colleague from Davao del Norte and other individuals to file charges over the alleged budget insertions.

Gutierrez said the filing of charges was done shortly after 215 out of 306 members of the House impeached Vice President Sara Duterte on Feb. 5.

“Yung sa akin lang po (For me), it's just that the timing that it would come out after the news of the impeachment, ‘yun lang po ‘yung tanong namin dito last time (that was our question here the last time). It's not even about probable cause po. ‘Yung tanong lang po namin talaga is just the timing in general (Our only issue is just the timing in general),” he added.

Gutierrez pointed out that he and those who similarly took issue with the timing of the filing of budget blanks-related charges could not have acted like a court, as Alvarez claimed, because they neither discussed nor questioned the merits of the complaint.

“Kasi ‘yung comments niya po (Because based on his comments), I remember it's likening the Congress to a court, na there was mentioned na probable cause po ano. Pero (But) if I recall our statements correctly, we're talking about ‘yung (the) personal motivations that might accompanied, the timing of the case,” he said. 

Gutierrez said that he and his colleagues never discussed the merits of the case or the probable cause. 

"Personally if I recall correctly, ‘yung binabanggit ko (what I'm mentioning) is the timing of the filing of the case. Bakit ngayon lang po? (Why only know?) So, definitely we don't want to pre-judge kung merong probable cause or hindi (if there was probable cause or not),” he said.

“In fact what we've mentioned if I remember correctly is that we welcome po, we respect anyone, not just the good congressman, but anyone who would like to seek redress before the courts. So, tama naman po ‘yung ginawa niya (So what he did was correct), it's just that we don't agree,” he added.