How can Gloria solve a problem like Joe de Venecia?

As I writing, voting goes on on the motion to declare the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives vacant.

In a speech prior to the voting, De Venecia said:

there were many attempts to tamper with the results of the 2004 elections

and told reporters right after that:

I will join the battle against corruption with the opposition, and praise the President if she does things right or denounce her (if she does something wrong)

Joining the opposition will be natural for De Venecia. For one, he is unwanted by the ascendant new majority whose members have not hidden their disgust over his speakership. Secondly, he must exert effort to keep himself, his son and his entire family safe from harm — and only a high-profile and oppositionist will give him sense of security, aside from hiring a bigger group of guards, of course.

Surely, the Speaker knows so many things given his lofty position and the long time he has been considered a close ally of the administration. Some of them are damaging, if we are to believe his opening salvo.

We can only hope that De Venecia makes true his promise about being militant in exposing corruption. He will need it if only to redeem himself from the humiliation the Arroyo camp is putting him through.

The president’s henchmen at the Palace have expectedly rejected De Venecia’s claims, with Interior Sec. Ronnie Puno saying:

There’s nothing new really with what he’s saying, rehash of all the other issues that has been discussed in media, in the Senate over the past few months, of course it is only now that he is coming out with his version of all these issues.

Whether there’s a plot to kill Joe and Joey de Venecia, I do not know.

What is clear now is that he’s being killed politically at the very House he led for many years, and which he steered to favor the President through thick and thin.