CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Vowing lack of political ambition in 2022, will Pampanga 3rd District Rep Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. be the second Kapampangan to land as House Speaker? Gonzalez, a partymate of Pres.
Duterte, is against big names in the race for the speakership, but has remained confident of his chances.
He has cited at least one particular advantage in his favor: his lack of any political ambition in 2022. It seemed to have been offered as guarantee for altruism as House Speaker.
“I have no political ambition sa 2022,” Gonzales told media last Tuesday before attending a meeting with the 54-strong partylist coalition that has vowed to vote as a bloc in the speakership race.
“Because we hear different things, right? That when you sit as Speaker, you’re planning for higher office for the next elections,” he said.
He stressed that “I don’t have any ambition to become a senator, vice president, or something. My only plan is to do everything I can for the House of Representatives.”
Outgoing House Speaker Pampanga 2nd District Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who had also served as president of the Republic, is the first Kapampangan to become House Speaker. She is on her third and last term in Congress and did not run for any political post in the last elections.
Arroyo’s father, the late former President Diosdado Macapagal, a native of Lubao, Pampanga, also was member of the House, but never occupied the speakership.
This, even as Gonzalez said that “from P1 million, the alleged bribe offer in the speakership race has ballooned to P7 million for each congressman.
The massive bribe offer has infuriated congressional leaders who said that vote buying is a desperate move that should be condemned.
1Pacman Partylist Rep. Michael Romero, president of the 54-strong Partylist Coalition Foundation, Inc. (PCFI), decried the alleged bribery as an insult to lawmakers, especially members of the coalition, which has slowly emerged as a solid political bloc in the Lower House.
