By Billy Begas
House Assistant Majority Leader and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong denied that the removal of certain representatives from their committees was connected to the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.
“The committee chairmanship it’s allocated per party. Per party yan eh,” said Adiong in a media forum in Quezon City over the weekend.
“So hindi naman pag nalagay ka dyan is forever ka na dyan. Kasi, at any given time, membership can actually change in every committee,” added Adiong, spokesperson of the House impeachment prosecution panel.
During the May 20 plenary session, the majority moved to reconsider the election of Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado and Agusan del Norte Rep. Dale Corvera as vice chairpersons of the House Committee on Appropriations.
Laguna Rep. Ramil Hernandez was also removed as chairperson of the House Special Committee on Southern Tagalog Development. He was replaced by Laguna Rep. Loreto Amante.
The three voted against the impeachment of Duterte.
“So yung mga changes, it happens regularly. It is not something that happens now, it happens regularly,” Adiong said. “Nagkaroon lang ata kasi ng issue ng impeachment, that’s why many are trying to associate that changes in the committee chairmanship of theresult that came out during the voting.”
Adiong said the explanation for the removal is that political parties decide who among their members will continue leading or serving in committees assigned to them.
“So I guess it’s more of a party decision because the party actually chooses among their party mates na naka-assign sa isang committee na yan, who will maintain and who will continue as chairman of the committee,” Adiong stressed.
On May 11, the House of Representatives impeached Duterte with 257 votes, more than the needed one-third or 106 required by the Constitution. Twenty-five opposed Duterte’s impeachment, while nine abstained.
