House Speaker cites plot to remove him

SPEAKER Alan Peter S. Cayetano on Thursday said he had received verified information about an attempt to oust him.

About 20 congressmen claimed to have been offered committee chairmanships in exchange for their vote in a coup, he said.

“There were budget and chairmanship promises,” Mr. Cayetano said when asked if he believed rumors that Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Q. Velasco was behind the ouster plot. He added that Mr. Velasco had directly talked to some congressmen.

Mr. Velasco denied the allegations. “These reports are far from the truth,” he said in a statement, adding that the allegations were meant to divide the House of Representatives.

“Up to this day, I continue to honor the term-sharing agreement brokered by no less than President Rodrigo R. Duterte when the 18^th Congress convened in July 2019,” he said.

“From the beginning, I never had any intention of reneging on this agreement,” he said. “I am a man with a word of honor,” he said in Filipino.

Salvador S. Panelo, Mr. Duterte’s spokesman, told a briefing the president had not complained about Mr. Cayetano’s performance as speaker. — Genshen L. Espedido