MANILA, Philippines — The next minority leader of the House of Representatives should neither be an ally of the administration nor “handpicked” by the ruling party, an opposition congressman said on Sunday. Newly reelected Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said incoming House members should pick a minority leader who does not belong to a party allied with the Duterte administration. Lagman, leader of the Magnificent 7 opposition bloc and member of the Liberal Party, urged aspirants for the speakership to pick a common administration candidate among themselves to prevent the minority leader from being selected among the ranks of the administration. By tradition, the minority leader is the one who gets the second highest number of votes after the Speaker in an election. Minority Leader Danilo Suarez belonged to Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) party and was a known ally of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who led Lakas-CMD until she joined the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan in 2018.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer May 19, 2019 21:33 UTC