Tuesday, 16 March 2010 00:00BY FRANCIS EARL A. CUETO Reporter
Original Story: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/component/content/article/42-rokstories/13449-presidents-bid-for-speakers-post-seen-unlikely
A congressional candidate in the Second District of Marikina City (Metro Manila) on Monday expressed doubts that President Gloria Arroyo would vie for the Speakership of the House of Representatives if she won in the congressional race in her home province of Pampanga in the May 10 elections.
Lawyer Romero Federico Quimbo of the Liberal Party (LP) told editors and reporters of The Manila Times during an exclusive roundtable that the party would block any moves pushing for President Arroyo’s bid for the leadership of the House of Representatives.
Or, Quimbo said, the LP would vote “no” against proposals that would pave the way for the President becoming House Speaker.
“There is an agreement within the LP that any moves to install Mrs. Arroyo as a Speaker will be thwarted,” he disclosed.
Quimbo said that personally, he believes that the President would no longer seek the Speakership.
“I doubt if she [Mrs. Arroyo] will run [for House Speaker]. She will no longer have the numbers by then. Mapapahiya lang siya [She would only be embarrassing herself],” Quimbo said.
He explained that after a new president is elected in the May 10 polls, those in Congress would automatically jump over to the winning political party in the presidential race.
This will mean, Quimbo said, that Mrs. Arroyo would no longer be able to muster the same number of supporters as easily as she did in crushing any moves against her presidency.
Rumors of a shift from a presidential to a parliamentary form of government had been fueled by the President filing her certificate of candidacy to run for a congressional seat in Pampanga’s second district.
If he himself won in Marikina City, Quimbo said, he would appeal to the new president to remove the “pork barrel,” similar to what Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd is pushing.
He added that he also would be pushing for a massive housing program particularly for his constituents.
Quimbo, though, said that it would take political will to effect removal of the pork barrel.
Crafting laws, he added, is what the people expect of their representatives in Congress to do, not receiving “pork.”
Original Story: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/component/content/article/42-rokstories/13449-presidents-bid-for-speakers-post-seen-unlikely
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