BY GENALYN KABILING
House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and his predecessor Taguig Rep. Alan Cayetano have agreed to work as “one majority” to facilitate the swift passage of the proposed 2021 national budget, Malacañang said Tuesday.
The agreement was reached when President Duterte met with two lawmakers at the Malago clubhouse inside Malacanang Park following the change in House leadership and reminded them about the importance of the budget approval.
“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s meeting with House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and former Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano pushed through in the early afternoon of Tuesday, October 13,” Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
“In the course of the meeting, the two representatives agreed to work together as one majority in order to ensure the timely passage of the 2021 budget and other priority legislation of the Duterte administration,” he said.
The President earlier asked Velasco and Cayetano to a meeting at noon Tuesday, a day after the Marinduque lawmaker was elected by majority of lawmakers as the new House Speaker.
The two congressmen have been feuding over the term-sharing deal for the House Speakership in recent weeks.
The dispute was resolved when the House members voted for Velasco as their leader and booted out Cayetano from the top post.
The President has asked Congress to convene a special session this week specifically to pass the 2021 budget proposal aimed at sustaining the government’s response and recovery plans amid the coronavirus pandemic. He earlier asked lawmakers to settle their dispute and pass the budget on time.
