Senate Pres. Tito Sotto Speaks on Change of Leadership in the House of Representatives
TITO SOTTO – The Senate President admitted that he was informed prior to the confirmation of the rumors and speculations about the resignation of Leyte Representative Martin Romualdez from being the House Speaker.
Amid the flood control mess in the Philippines wherein some names of incumbent senators were dragged into the issue, the Senate had a change of leadership. Former Senate Pres. Chiz Escudero was ousted from the top post in the upper chamber and was replaced by now-Senate Pres. Vicente Sotto III who was formerly the Senate Minority Leader.
The ouster of Escudero came amid his name was dragged into the flood control mess after he admitted that he received a P30-million campaign donation from one of the contractors flagged by Pres. Bongbong Marcos. The contractor donor of former Senate Pres. Chiz Escudero claimed that the P30-million came from his own pocket. He also admitted to having family members who hold government posts in Sorsogon.
Following the shakeup in the Senate which led the chamber under the lead of Senate Pres. Tito Sotto, countless Filipinos were surprised when Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez resigned from being the speaker of the House of Representatives. His name was also dragged into the flood control mess after controversial contractors Pacifico and Sarah Discaya claimed that he is one of the government officials who allegedly receive kickback from flood control projects.
In their joint affidavit, the Discayas claimed that Romualdez and Ako Bicol Partylist Rep. Zaldy Co allegedly receive a 30% kickback on government flood control deals. The then-House Speaker immediately junked the accusation and stressed that he is “self-made”.
On Wednesday, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez officially resigned from being the House Speaker. According to Senate Pres. Tito Sotto, it did not come as a surprise to him as he was told by a vice chairman of the CA prior that they will be changing their leadership.
Based on a post of GMA News on social media, Senate Pres. Tito Sotto also revealed that he already overheard talks that Isabela Rep. Bojie Dy is being convinced to take the speakership. According to him, he and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez had no prior talks about the House’s change of leadership.
“Wala kaming pag-uusap about that except during the birthday lunch of Pres. Marcos I was already overhearing from the other members of the House that they were asking Bojie to consider the speakership,” Sotto said.
The Senate President said that the new House Speaker, Bojie Dy, is “a very good choice”. He stressed that Dy has served as vice mayor, mayor, vice governor, governor, and congressman and had “no bad record” in all those years of service.
“Very good choice. For the congressman, he has a very good record. He’s been vice mayor, mayor, congressman, governor, vice governor, congressman uli. And in all those years, no bad record,” the Senate President said.
During the interview, Senate Pres. Tito Sotto expressed his confidence that House Speaker Bojie Dy is capable of leading the House of Representatives. According to him, they were party-mates before under the Nationalist People’s Coalition or NPC. He stressed that it was just recently when Dy joined the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas or PFP which is Marcos Jr.’s political party.
Aside from Senate Pres. Tito Sotto, known Duterte-ally and Sen. Bato dela Rosa also spoke about House Speaker Bojie Dy.