HOUSE Majority Floor Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas on Wednesday played down the alleged coup plot against him and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
“If the report is true and they succeed, good luck to them,” Fariñas said in a text message amid the rumors he and Alvarez would be replaced.
“That is not true,” Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III said and added the House leadership enjoyed the support of the coalition members.
Albano is the majority leader of the House contingent to the Commission on Appointments.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said there were no moves to oust Pimentel.
“The change of leadership in both houses of Congress is always there. That’s no longer surprising,” Sotto said.
He said Pimentel would remain the Senate leader when Congress resumed its session on May 14.
Earlier, Pimentel said he was willing to go anytime his colleagues wanted to replace him. He was prepared to leave his post.
“I should be able to let go anytime. I know that,” said Pimentel who is also e president of the ruling PDP-Laban party.
Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez, chairman of the House committee on housing and urban development, also shrugged off the alleged leadership change at the House.
But opposition Rep. Gary Alejano warned that “a change in leadership will seriously derail the time table of the Duterte administration in pursuing [its] agenda, including Charter Change.
“Rumors of a coup d’etat in the House have been circulating since early last year but the Speaker, the majority floor leader and their minions seem to have a strong grip on the coalition,” Alejano said. “I think it will be difficult for any bloc or blocs to overthrow the current leadership.”
Alejano said he and the other members of the opposition, including those in the Liberal Party, “are just curious outsiders in this majority coalition tussle.”
He said the coup against Alvarez and his leadership could have been instigated by “a number of people who have been unceremoniously belittled or hurt by the current House leadership.”
“This includes the former president [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo] who was stripped of her position [as deputy speaker] because of her opposition to the death penalty.
“There’s the Marcoses, Representative [Antonio] Floirendo [Jr.] whose district allocations were cut. And I heard even the majority’s minority-led Representative [Danilo] Suarez [of Quezon] are not happy.”
