Contact Details

Rm. N-411, House of Representatives, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
+63 2 931 5497, +63 2 931 5001 local 7370

Press Statements
Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
Office of the Minority Leader
17 January 2012
0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
 
          The hand of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is indelibly stamped on the manifesto seeking the installation of Rep. Danilo Suarez as the new Minority Leader.
 
          The purported sixteen signatories to the Suarez manifesto included the former President’s two sons, Rep. Diosdado M. Arroyo and Rep. Juan Miguel Macapagal Arroyo.
 
          The Arroyo brothers signed the manifesto despite earlier protestations from the Arroyos that they would remain neutral to debunk accusations that the former president was behind the ouster plot against Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman.
 
          Except for Rep. Simeon Datumanong, who was Secretary of Public Works and Secretary of Justice during the Arroyo Administration, all former Arroyo cabinet members now in the minority sided with Suarez, namely Rep. Nasser Pangandaman, former Secretary of Agrarian Reform, Rep. Arthur Yap, former Secretary of Agriculture, who reportedly phoned in his conformity according to the Suarez camp, and Rep. Augusto Syjuco, former Administrator of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), who claims to be still with the minority despite his having transferred to the Nacionalista Party .
 
          Rep. Jose Aquino, former Presidential Assistant for the CARAGA Region, and Rep. Rodolfo Albano, former Chairman of the Energy Regulatory Commission both during the Arroyo presidency, also signed the Suarez manifesto.
 
          Lagman has challenged the validity of the Suarez manifesto on the following grounds:
 
1)   There were five minority members who signed both the resolution retaining Lagman as Minority Leader and the manifesto supporting Suarez as the new Minority Leader. The double signatures cancel out the conflicting preferences resulting in the nullification of the choices. By suppletory application or parity of reasoning, the Omnibus Election Code is instructive when it provides that “where there are two or more candidates voted for in an office for which the law authorizes the election of only one, the vote shall not be counted in favor of any of them”.
 
The dual signatories are Rep. Albano, Rep. Pangandaman, Rep. Mohammed Hussein Pangandaman, Rep. Erico Aumentado and Rep. Reena Concepcion Obillo.
 
2)   Two signatories to the manifesto, Rep. Augusto Syjuco and Rep. Fatima Aliah Dimaporo, are disqualified because they have joined the Nationalista Party which is in coalition with the administration, and they have not presented any concrete proof that they have gotten the prior consent of the Nationalist Party leadership to remain in the opposition, unlike Rep. Carlos Padilla and Rep. Marc Cagas who secured the permission of Senator Manuel Villar, President of the Nationalist Party, before the start of the 15th Congress to join the ranks of the minority while remaining as members of the Nationalista Party.
 
3)   Rep. Yap should not be counted as a signatory because he did not personally sign the manifesto, and he has called Lagman this noon from Bohol to say he was staying neutral.
 
          If the said invalid and contested signatures are not counted for Suarez, he would fall short of the requisite absolute majority of 16 supportive opposition members to replace Lagman given the number of minority members at 30 to include presumptively Syjuco and Aliah Dimaporo.
 
          The Suarez manifesto is based on an alleged term-sharing agreement between Lagman and Suarez which Lagman has consistently disputed because the term-splitting arrangement was limited to the Speakership in the event the then Lakas Kampi won the Speakership with Lagman as the candidate. There was no term-sharing forged for the minority leadership.
 
          Lagman in not a stranger to term-sharing agreements. Before he assumed the Chairmanship of the powerful Committee on Appropriations in the 14th Congress, then Speaker Jose De Venecia brokered a term-sharing agreement between him and Rep. Junie Cua. Lagman complied with the arrangement despite the fact that De Venecia was not anymore the incumbent because he had been replaced by Speaker Prospero Nograles.
 

Press Statements
Office of Minority Leader
Edcel C. Lagman
15 January 2012
0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
 
SUAREZ FAILS TO GET MINORITY SUPPORT
 
        The Minority bloc in the House of Representatives could avoid a divisive confrontation on Monday by the simple expedient of Rep. Danilo Suarez producing an absolute majority of 15 opposition members endorsing him to replace Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman.
 
        If Suarez fails to secure the requisite number of signatories, Lagman remains the Minority Leader.
 
        In fact, it is Lagman who holds a resolution entitled “To Maintain Rep. Edcel C. Lagman as Minority Leader” signed by an absolute majority of Minority members who want him to continue heading the opposition and have vowed to remain steadfast in supporting him.
 
        Suarez was unsuccessful in his attempt yesterday afternoon to get the endorsement of his minority colleagues.
 
        Reliable sources reported that aside from Suarez, only six minority Representatives attended the caucus hosted by Suarez at the Manila Golf and Country Club.
 
        There is no term-sharing for the Minority leadership because none was forged. The splitting arrangement was limited to the speakership.
 
        It is recalled that Lagman willingly abided by a term-sharing agreement when there was actually one.  He turned over the Chairmanship of the powerful Committee on Appropriations in the 14th Congress to Rep. Junie Cua despite the fact that Speaker Jose de Venecia, who arranged the term-sharing, was not anymore the incumbent.

Press Statements

 

Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
Tel No. 4155455
Mobile No. 0918-9120137
05 January 2011
GMA PLOTS LAGMAN’S OUSTER
AS HOUSE MINORITY LEADER

          GMA and her constant travelling companions in her past foreign trips are plotting to replace Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman with Quezon Representative Danilo Suarez.
          The former President and now Pampanga Representative called an emergency meeting in her hospital suite at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) last Wednesday night with Suarez, Rep. Martin Romualdez and Rep. Amelia Villarosa in attendance.
          Although Lagman is perceived to be an ally of GMA in the opposition, he is not a GMA stooge and does not succumb to her bidding.
          Lagman is known to have discarded press statements prepared by GMA propagandists which had been passed on as materials to the Minority in its regular Wednesday press fora.
          Lagman insists that his term-sharing agreement with Suarez was limited to the speakership if the then Lakas-Kampi would win the speakership, but did not extend to the minority leadership.
          The Bicol solon added that agreeing to share the term of the minority leader would have sent defeatist signals since Lakas-Kampi was fighting for the speakership.
           News accounts in July 2010 confirmed the limited extent of the agreement.
           Lagman has the confidence of an absolute majority of the minority members who had signed a resolution retaining him as minority leader for his “responsible and credible stewardship of the minority.”
           Minority insiders believe the opposition needs a competent and experienced legal mind like Lagman to continue challenging and combating the Aquino administration’s propensity to trespass the rule of law, trample on the independence of the judiciary and transgress civil liberties.
           GMA and her group are trying to convince the Lagman supporters not to honor their signatures.
           The Minority Leader from Bicol clarified that the alleged opposition caucus last December 2011 adverted to by Suarez did not decide on a change of leadership and opted not to take a vote due to the absence of many opposition members who were not previously informed of the impromptu meeting and the prevailing consensus not to bring the issue to a vote.
            Lagman has also been hailed by his colleagues for asserting and defending the independence of the legislature in the budget process and policy-making.
           He secured the release of the PDAF allocations for the districts of Suarez, Romualdez, Villarosa and Rep. Arthur Yap.
           Lagman has been recognized for articulating alternative and critical views on relevant issues like good governance, human rights, rule of law, agrarian reform, the budget and the economy.
           Lagman is the Chairman of Lakas CMD and Vice President of Centrist Democrats International (CDI), a worldwide organization of Christian and Muslim political parties.
           Lagman is a six-term Representative and used to chair the Committees on Appropriation, Justice, Agrarian Reform and Overseas Workers Affairs.

 

Press Statements
Office of Minority Leader
Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
07 January 2012
0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
             I want to continue providing the minority in the House of Representatives a competent, credible and conscientious leadership.
            This is also the mandate of Minority colleagues constituting an absolute majority of opposition members who voluntarily endorsed my retention as Minority Leader in a signed resolution last December 2011.
           Rep. Danilo Suarez must not disparage and demean the imprimatur of his colleagues who did not only express support for my leadership but collectively want me to continue leading the opposition.
            Suarez must be using a derelict abacus in counting 19 supporters.
           The term-sharing proposed by Suarez in July 2010 was limited to the Speakership which was his way out in not contesting my candidacy for Speaker representing the then Lakas Kampi after he realized that he did not have the numbers in the party.
            Even granting Suarez’ imagined term-sharing for the minority leadership existed, minority members can overturn such agreement which is not binding on them.
           It should be Suarez who must stop involving former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in his struggle and should not use her hospital suite as his campaign headquarters.
            Suarez must wean himself from the former President and desist running to her for help.

Press Statements
Office of Minority Leader
Edcel C. Lagman
04 January 2012
0916-6406731 / 0918-9120137
LAGMAN CONTINUES AS
HOUSE MINORITY LEADER

            Rep. Edcel C. Lagman of Albay remains the House Minority Leader as an absolute majority of the Minority Members want him to continue his “credible and responsible stewardship of the opposition.”
            This development forecloses any change in the leadership of the House Minority when the Congress reconvenes on January 16, 2012.
            Minority insiders believe that the opposition needs a competent and experienced legal mind like Lagman to continue challenging and combatting the Aquino administration’s propensity to trespass the rule of law, trample on the independence of the judiciary and transgress civil liberties.
            Lagman said that the term sharing agreement between him and Rep. Danilo Suarez was limited to the Speakership in the event the then Lakas Kampi took the helm of the House of Representatives as documented and reported by tri-media in July 2010.
            The agreement did not extend to the minority leadership because it would have sent defeatist signals from a party fighting for the Speakership, Lagman added.
            The Minority Leader from Bicol clarified that the alleged opposition caucus last December 2011 adverted to by Suarez did not decide on a change of leadership and opted not to take a vote due to the absence of many opposition members who were not previously informed of the impromptu meeting and the prevailing consensus not to bring the issue to a vote.
             Lagman has also been hailed by his colleagues for asserting and defending the independence of the legislature in the budget process and policy making.
             Lagman has been recognized for articulating alternative and critical views on the relevant issues like good governance, human rights, rule of law, agrarian reform, the budget and the economy.
             Lagman is the Chairman of Lakas CMD and Vice President of Centrist Democrats International (CDI), a worldwide organization of Christian and Muslim political parties.
             Lagman is a six-term Representative and used to chair the Committees on Appropriation, Justice, Agrarian Reform and Overseas Workers Affairs.