Former minority leader and comebacking Albay Representative Edcel Lagman cautioned his colleagues in the House of Representatives about a “co-opted” minority that would serve as a “rubber stamp” of the Duterte administration.
In a statement on Monday, Lagman, who gained prominence for authoring the Reproductive Health law, warned against a move by the majority allies of President Rodrigo Duterte to infiltrate the minority to make it a “co-opted” bloc in Congress.
PRESS RELEASE
Office of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
(LP-Albay)
0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
03 July 2016
More than the ascendancy of a supermajority in the House of Representatives, what is seriously alarming is a possible emergence of a co-opted minority, a “company union” established and supported by the majority.
The alliance of a supermajority and a subservient minority in the House is a chemistry fatal to the democratic processes.
The apprehension is that parties in the majority coalition would clandestinely “lend” some of its members to a small group led by a Representative who previously encamped in Davao City to secure the anointment of the new administration for his bid to become Minority Leader.
PRESS RELEASE
Office of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
0916-6406737 I 0918-9120137
30 June 2016
Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, the principal author of the Reproductive Health Law, leads the campaign in the 17th Congress for the enactment of a law on absolute divorce.
Lagman filed on 30 June 2016 House Bill No. 116 instituting absolute divorce in the Philippines.
The Philippines is the only country in the world today which has no law on absolute divorce, after Malta on 28 May 2011 recommended by referendum the approval of its own divorce law.
The Bicol solon explained that while "most marriages are supposed to be solemnized in heaven, the reality is many marriages plummet into hell - in irremediable breakdown, spousal abuse, marital infidelity and psychological incapacity, among others, which bedevil marriages."
By: Edcel C. Lagman
THERE are a number of significant messages and mandates which emanated from the recent elections. I will underscore two of them.
The first is the reality and import of the overwhelming victory of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, which is unprecedented. This commanding landslide gives Duterte the indubitable mandate to effect reforms, with prior popular support. The only constraints are the limitations imposed by the Constitution, like due process and the rigorous allocation of powers among the presidency, the Congress and the Supreme Court.
This is so because Duterte won in a constitutional process, not by any upheaval outside of the fundamental law.
Consequently, Duterte’s reported pronouncement that if he “cannot get it the right way,” then he will “do it the wrong way” has no legitimate anchorage.
Let us grant that Duterte has the best of intentions. But intention is not the test on the validity of official actions. It is fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law.
By: Edcel C. Lagman
Party discipline, political stability and personal self-respect of the reelected and newly elected members of the House of Representatives in the 17th Congress will be tested once again in the furnace of frenzied recruitment by the political lieutenants of presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.
The raid, which has begun, is expected and inevitable. The courage to resist by the targeted victims is ideal, but the eventuality of capture is traditional.
Many do not wait to be recruited. They voluntarily apply for inclusion with alacrity in the administration party. It appears that the magnet of a new administration is inordinately insuperable and irresistible.
Will the fear of political marginalization supplant the will of the electorate who voted for representatives presumably following party lines and party platforms? Will the enticement of committee chairmanships rescind the elected representatives’ covenant with the people who voted for them as members of particular political parties? Will self-interest dominate self-respect as shifting partisan loyalties rule the day?
Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/94810/turncoatism-a-bane-to-checks-and-balances#ixzz4CIym3WVH
