GMA clears First Lady in House coup spat
Credit to Author: Delon Porcalla| Date: Mon, 29 May 2023 00:00:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos had nothing to do with any plot to oust Speaker Martin Romualdez as leader of the House of Representatives, according to Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who herself has been battling accusations of hatching the plot.
“It is disrespectful to her and to her intelligence,” said Arroyo, former president and now Pampanga congresswoman, of the lawyer-wife of President Marcos whose name has been dragged into the controversy.
“Whoever is spreading these pathetic rumors are the ones duping the Filipino people, and they should now move on to the serious business of making positive contributions to national progress,” added Arroyo, chairperson emeritus of the dominant Lakas-CMD party in which Romualdez is president.
Arroyo over the weekend also branded as “political fantasy” a House coup that she purportedly hatched, since being a former president herself, she knows that such a move can never succeed without the blessing of the sitting president — in this case, Marcos, a cousin of Romualdez.
She insisted she had no motivation to take over the House leadership, as she in fact persuaded Marcos and now Vice President Sara Duterte (who was Davao City mayor then) to team up in the May 2022 presidential elections.
“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,” Arroyo said.
Romualdez neither confirmed nor denied such coup rumors that allegedly involved his long-time mentor Arroyo, but categorically said in a statement that “occasional moves to destabilize the House should be nipped in the bud.”
Independent legislator Rep. Edcel Lagman, president of the opposition Liberal Party, called on the Speaker to make public, in the interest of fairness, the “incriminatory details and evidence regarding the plot to oust him.”
“It is incumbent for the Speaker, in the interest of the House members still in the dark, to reveal the inculpatory details of a plot by GMA (Arroyo) for her to deserve such an abrupt, unceremonious, and humiliating demotion,” Lagman said.
Lagman, once a political ally of Arroyo when he was a member of Lakas-CMD, recalled how Arroyo was demoted from House senior deputy speaker to deputy speaker apparently when rumors circulated she was after Romualdez’s post.
“But there can be no conspiracy of one. Who are the other conspirators? Why are they not similarly punished? Maybe they do not have any important positions in the House from which they can be demoted,” the Albay congressman theorized.
“In hindsight, there should have been first a confrontation between the protagonists before any penalty was imposed. Although it appears that GMA has accepted her fate, politics is not only a show of force, it is also a show of appearances,” he added.
Romualdez and Arroyo have since appeared in public together, with the Speaker even approaching her, kissing her hand and putting it on his forehead as a sign of respect.
Reacting to that scene, which happened at the plenary shortly before the new senior deputy speaker of the House was sworn in, Lagman said: “Protagonists kiss and make up in public with daggers behind their backs. Token gestures of amity actually hide enmity.”
“The drama in the House has not ended. The astute and experienced politician that she is, GMA will not take lying down her humiliating and insulting demotion. She may be biding her time to make a counteroffensive,” he warned.