BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The removal and replacement of 1-Pacman Rep. Michael Romero as the Deputy Speaker puts the credibility of the House of Representatives in a bad light, and is also a blatant violation of tradition, Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano (Abang Lingkod) said yesterday.
Romero, an ally of Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, was replaced by Capiz Rep. Fredenil Castro, an ally of House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
Paduano said that positions in the House are allocated based on the number of parties and blocs, who decide whom to be assigned as members of every allocated position, based on seniority.
What happened was a total disregard of our tradition, he stressed, describing it also as an insult, an affront, and a blatant attack against the 50-member party-list coalition.
This only shows that Cayetano is a vindictive kind of leader, Paduano said.
He added that Cayetano should have consulted the party-list group, and slammed him for replacing Romero with a non-member of the party-list coalition.
“If he can afford to do this to our president, what else can we expect as to the ordinary members?” Paduano asked.*
