LIBERAL Party (LP) member and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman has accused incoming Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and former Vice President Jejomar Binay of hatching a “sinister plot” to control the minority bloc in the 17th Congress.

According to Lagman, Alvarez and Binay met with Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, who was being groomed to lead the minority bloc.

“Alvarez told Binay that he was ‘comfortable’ with Suarez as minority leader and assured [him of] Suarez’s victory,” Lagman said in a statement. Both Binay and Suarez are members of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).