Duterte confident Cayetano will be voted Speaker
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2019 12:23:08 +0000
President Duterte is confident that Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano will get enough votes to become the next Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The President has voiced optimism about the chances of Cayetano to lead the House as he brushed aside the alleged brewing coup against his Speaker bet as mere “wishful thinking.”
“You heard of wishful thinking?” the President said in an interview with reporters in Malacanang, reacting to the supposed plot to stage a House coup during the opening of the 18th Congress.
Asked if Cayetano will get the votes to win the speakership, the President said: “He will.”
Cayetano was among the government officials present during the celebration of the Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporation Day in Malacañang.
After the ceremony, the former Foreign Affairs Secretary approached the President and showed respect by making the “mano” gesture. Duterte was seen reciprocating the sign of respect to Cayetano.
After being persuaded to resolve the House leadership conflict, the President recently announced that Cayetano will share the term as Speaker with Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco.
Under the term-sharing deal, Cayetano will serve as House leader for the next 15 months while Velasco will take the post for the remaining 21 months.
Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, however, announced that the speakership fight appeared to be not yet over despite the President’s term-sharing arrangement between two aspirants. The President’s son dropped hints that one of the aspirants may stage a coup to reject Cayetano’s leadership. (Genalyn Kabiling)