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Manila Bulletin devider devider Speakership candidates vow equal treatment for partylist solons

Speakership candidates vow equal treatment for partylist solons

Published May 23, 2019 08:45 pm
By Ben Rosario There will be no more “second class” congressmen in the House of Representatives if one of three candidates for speaker will make it to the top post next month. Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, together with come backing Representatives Alan Peter Cayetano (NP, Taguig) and Martin Romualdez (Lakas-CMD, Leyte), made this assurance to members of Partylist Coalition Inc., the second biggest political bloc in the Lower House. The three speakership hopefuls showed up one at a time at the PCI’s organizational meeting to present their platform of leadership that centered on the treatment of partylist congressmen in various aspects of lawmaking in the Lower House. 1Pacman Partylist Rep. Mikey Romero, newly-elected PCI president, said all three candidates for speaker aired their concern over the common complaint of partylist solons of being treated as “second class citizens” in the chamber. Romero said the feeling of being left out or discriminated upon is common among the past and current crop of party-list representatives. “We talked about being considered second class citizens in Congress and how to go about it.  We are happy that we have this talk with the speakers,” he said. The second-term party-list representative insisted that since the PCI comprises 20 percent of the total House membership, the organization should be entitled to 20 percent of all chairmanship seats in the chamber. Velasco, Romualdez, and Cayetano pledged to treat the party-list organization members equally and fairly under their respective leadership of the chamber. “We will work for their proper representation in all committees, we shall work on the budget allocations and these are the details that we will thresh out,” said Romualdez before meeting with the group. Velasco said all congressmen, whether party list or district representatives, should be treated equally as members of Congress. “I told them we are all representatives, you guys represent your sectors, and we represent our districts.  So everyone should be treated the same, everyone should be treated fairly,” stated Velasco, who can become the youngest speaker in Philippine history if he succeeds in becoming the House leader. He added, “Definitely, the party list coalition is a force to be reckoned with.” Cayetano, who came with his sister, newly-elected Sen. Pia Cayetano, did not grant a media interview.
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