In a matter of hours, the country may have a new Speaker of the House of Representatives, courtesy of a public revolt by members of President Arroyo’s party Kampi.
There’s an ongoing propaganda battle over who’s got the numbers. The camp which could produce at least a majority of all House members gets to keep or nab the speakership.
Speaker Jose de Venecia is confident he still has the numbers. But erstwhile ally and now rival Prospero Nograles claims to piling up signatures for a manifesto calling for a regime change in the House.
De Venecia is reeling from the adverse effects of his son’s expose regarding the scuttled National Broadband Network in which he pointed at First Gentleman Mike Arroyo as behind a move to award the NBN contract to Chinese firm ZTE.
Kampi president Luis Villafuerte is 100 percent sure that De Venecia will be deposed.
De Venecia remains cool.
The President’s chief legal counsel meanwhile claims the Palace will largely be unaffected by the intramurals in the House that may unseat De Venecia.
The interesting thing about this is what will happen if and when Nograles actually unseats De Venecia. Of course, that will mean that President Arroyo will have complete and total control of the House leadership.
But not only that, that may mean that disgruntled De Venecia allies may join the opposition. They may be rooting for Arroyo now, but when they see and feel the pinch and crunch from a President they so love, things may get messy. I don’t want to speculate but Arroyo will only increase the number of her foes and critics.
Which brings us to the function of the House as the starting point for impeachment proceedings. The weaker the pro-Arroyo camp camps, the better for the minority and the opposition. Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora should lose no time crunching his own numbers so that a proper impeachment complaint may be readied, together with a sufficient number of signatures to instantly transmit the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate.
The arrogant sons of Arroyo, who have put themselves in the chamber as representatives, will hopefully regret making this false call for reforms.
The nation watches the circus and prays that regime change in the House will lead to regime change in the Palace.