SPEAKER Lord Allan Velasco on Tuesday reiterated his commitment to pass the legislative agenda of President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte without turning the House of Representatives into Malacañang’s rubber stamp.
Velasco stressed his leadership will not set aside the independence of the House of Representatives and their mandate to scrutinize various legislative proposals from the Palace.
“We debate on [the bills] muna po, we’ll have [these] scrutinized,” Velasco said. “We cannot be called a rubber stamp because we do our job, scrutinizing each and every legislative measure po.”
The Speaker vowed to push Charter change (Cha-cha) if President Duterte would ask him, but admitted there is no sufficient time and that the government should continue on its focus to eliminate the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19).
“Kung sasabihin po niya (President Duterte) na kinakailangan po nating gawin, ay gagawin po natin,” Velasco said. “To be honest po talaga I would want to push for charter change but I think there is really no more time, especially we’re focusing all our efforts sa COVID, ‘yung mga responses natin.”
“Kagaya po dito sa ating mga public officials, when we talk about term changes, to be honest, kinakailangan po natin,”according to Velasco.
Velasco also said that he has no intention of running for any national position in the 2022 presidential election.
“I don’t have any national ambitions. That’s the reason why I always remain in the background,” said Velasco.
