• Office of the Minority Leader
• Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
• 18 January 2012

           The repeated incantations of Rep. Danilo Suarez that we had a term-sharing agreement for the minority leadership is a monotonous refrain.

            Suarez has failed to prove the existence of said agreement except by his self-serving recollection which has been collaborated verbally by one or two of his supporters.

            There was no such term-splitting arrangement. The news accounts in July 2010 documented that our term-sharing agreement was limited only to the Speakership in the event I won as the candidate of Lakas Kampi after Suarez withdrew his bid.

             The claim of Suarez that he has obtained the endorsement of an absolute majority of 16 opposition members as the new minority leader is baseless.

             He has not produced the uncontested and incontestable signatures to replace me because five of the signatories to his manifesto also signed the resolution retaining me as minority leader, and consequently their dual preferences are self-nullifying.

             Moreover, two of the signatories to the Suarez manifesto are not qualified because they have already joined the Nationalista Party which is aligned with the majority coalition.

             Additionally, Rep. Arthur Yap who was earlier reported to have phoned-in his adherence to the manifesto, called to say that he was remaining neutral.

            Consequently, with the voiding of the contested signatures, Suarez has failed to obtain the absolute majority support of his opposition colleagues.

            Any manifestation in the plenary about Suarez being the new minority leader is out of order.

           The plenary is not the venue for threshing out disputes in the minority and the Rules provide that the Minority Leader can only be changed “by a majority of all the minority members.”