Gloria meets Sara
‘Rainbow coalition’ celebrates a week after capturing the House
SPEAKER Gloria Arroyo hosted a thanksgiving lunch with Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte, and administration lawmakers on Monday, a week after their successful bid to capture control of the House of Representatives.
JUST LUNCH Former president and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (right) meets Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte (left) during lunch with members of the House of Representatives at Seda Hotel in Quezon City on Monday. PHOTO FROM THE OFFICE OF THE SPEAKER
Arroyo said her meeting with the Davao mayor was “very nice and pleasant.”
Deputy Speaker Fredenil Castro of Capiz, who was one of the 184 lawmakers who voted for Arroyo as speaker to replace Pantaleon Alvarez last week, revealed that Mayor Duterte was a guest of the speaker in a luncheon held at a Quezon City hotel.
“She (Mayor Duterte) was invited by the speaker but she did not speak. She did not make pronouncements,” Castro told The Manila Times.
“There was luncheon of members of the House with Speaker Arroyo. Nothing was discussed other than expressing her appreciation for all those who supported her and urging everybody to start working on matters pending with the House, and there was also an announcement that we might able to elect certain officers of the House,” Castro added.
The President’s daughter admires Arroyo and does not see eye to eye with Alvarez. Alvarez had accused Mayor Duterte of turning opposition for forming her own regional party, Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) or Alliance for Change.
She then accused Alvarez of betraying her father by bragging to people that as the speaker, he could unseat the President through impeachment. Alvarez denied making such statements.
Mayor Duterte was said to have played a key role in Arroyo’s rise as speaker, with sources saying the President’s daughter burned the lines to marshal support for the former president.
Subsequently, The Times ran a story, citing House sources, of PDP-Laban members mulling jumping ship to the Davao City mayor’s HNP.
Castro, however, maintained that the presence of the mayor during the lunch meeting was not a discussion about people jumping ship or political parties merging with her regional party.
“She (Mayor Duterte) was there to say hello. Nothing was discussed about any coalition,” he said.
Castro, however, conceded that a number of political parties, namely Nacionalista Party (NP), Nationalist People’s Coalition, National Union Party, Lakas-CMD and PDP-Laban were well-represented during Speaker Arroyo’s lunch.
“As former Speaker [Jose] de Venecia used to call it, it was a rainbow coalition,” Castro added.
‘Political force’
Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Monday said the HNP regional party of Mayor Duterte has become a “political force” to reckon with.
The senator made the remark on Monday as Arroyo threw a thanksgiving luncheon for Mayor Duterte, Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos, and more than 100 lawmakers who elected her speaker.
“Accept it or not, Mayor Sara Duterte’s HNP has already emerged as a political force to reckon with, not only in her region but the national political scene as well,” Lacson said in a text message.
“The fact that she is being talked about as the ‘architect’ behind the changing of the guard in the HoR (House of Representatives), true or not, says it all,” he added.
Asked to comment on Arroyo’s election as House speaker, Lacson, once a fierce Arroyo critic, said “I still believe that no person is beyond redemption.”
“Regardless of her past ‘sins’ against the Filipino people, she may have regretted all those and make time for genuine and selfless service to the nation. Or so I hope,” he said.
Arroyo became the first woman speaker of the House two years after regaining freedom from detention over corruption charges and a year after she was sacked as deputy speaker by defying Alvarez and voting against the death penalty bill for drug traffickers.
After four years in detention, the Sandiganbayan on July 21, 2016 ordered Arroyo’s release from hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, two days after the Supreme Court acquitted her and former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) board member Benjamin Aguas of plunder over their alleged misuse of P366 million in PCSO funds from 2008 to 2010.
WITH BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO
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