OUTGOING Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. advised his successor Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan to adopt the “good camaraderie tactic” he employed during the 16th Congress in dealing with members of the Liberal Party.
At the same time, a congressman who requested not to be named appealed to the leadership of the PDP-Laban to stop trying to recruit LP members because that might make the “super coalition” in the House untenable with more LP members in the House than PDP-Laban members.
Belmonte stressed the need for the ruling PDP-Laban “to establish good relationship” with its coalition partners in the 17th Congress, like he did when the LP assumed power in 2010.
“Our policy then was to establish a good relationships with your allies, treat them fairly, treat them equally, and give recognition to them,” Belmonte told reporters.
“That is my way of bonding with them rather than forcing them to join the party,” Belmonte added, apparently referring to the declared plan of the PDP-Laban to reduce LP to a “bite-sized” minority of 20 member.
Belmonte also hinted that he might again pursue the challenge of being the next minority leader in the incoming 17th Congress because of the difficulty in finalizing a coalition agreement between the PDP-Laban and the LP.
This developed as a congressman who refused to be named expressed alarm at the massive recruitment being undertaken by members of the PDP-Laban among the future members of the 17th Congress.
“The PDP-Laban was disappointed with the continued recruitment of other parties from LP members, prompting the incoming ruling party to request them to stop the recruitment process,” the congressman said, warning of dire consequences.
“This may result in having a bigger number than the PDP-Laban,” the source said, adding that they might end up with a coalition that has more partner-members than actual party members.
“Like the NP, there are a lot [of LP members] who joined the supermajority which now brings to 54 or 55 members. If this will not stop, they might surpass the number of PDP-Laban members,” the congressman-source said.
The supermajority of PDP-Laban, where Alvarez is the secretary general, is composed of the Nacionalista Party, Nationalist People’s Coalition, the National Union Party, Lakas-CMD and the 57 allied party-list groups.