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House Speaker Jose De Venecia Jr. reiterated his
challenge to those wanting to remove him from his position to
produce the 121 required votes from the chamber. Otherwise, they are
just wasting their time, the Speaker said.
While de Venecia seemed to be in
panic mode when he conducted a series of meetings with his allies in
the House on Sunday after he arrived from his official trip to
Jakarta, the Speaker is no longer worried of an ouster because he
claims he has the overwhelming support of his colleagues in the
House and in the ruling Lakas CMD Party, including that of President
Gloria Arroyo.
House Senior Deputy Majority
Leader Neptali Gonzales Jr. expressed confidence that the threat
against de Venecia had been contained with President Arroyo herself
expressing her full support for the Speaker.
“We crushed it even before it
took off,” he said.
Reports have floated that it was
de Venecia’s ally, Rep. Prospero Nograles of Davao City, also
vice-chairman of the powerful Commission on Appointments, who wanted
to replace de Venecia. Nograles was also said to be “actively
campaigning against him [de Venecia].”
But Nograles vehemently denied
campaigning against the Speaker.
With suspicions raised towards
the Davao City lawmaker, some lawmakers loyal to de Venecia have
demanded Nograles to step down from his post as House contingent
head for the powerful appointments commission for “backstabbing”
de Venecia.
Nograles, on the contrary, said
he sees no reason why he should relinquish his post. The former
House majority leader said he would only step down if the decision
would come from the plenary.
--Maricel V. Cruz
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