Dispatch from Crame No. 358:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on the Majority-Annointed House Minority Leader

8/9/18

The selection of Rep. Danilo Suarez as House Minority Leader is wrong on all accounts, legally, politically, and morally. It goes against the ruling of the Supreme Court that the Minority in the House, especially the Minority leader, should necessarily come from those who did not vote with the Majority in the choice of the House Speaker.

It is a blatant effort by the House leadership under Speaker Macapagal-Arroyo to undermine any semblance of a genuine opposition under her watch, by choosing as Minority Leader someone who has displayed unwavering personal loyalty to Arroyo through the years.

Although this is not surprising, considering that we would not expect any better from a former Machiavellian President with a record of plunder and election manipulation, it is still a demonstration of how the rule of law is consistently dismissed in this administration.

It is only right that this action of the House leadership is assailed before the Supreme Court as another attack on our democratic institutions and processes.

Whatever is the outcome of such legal tack, this state of things in the House poses a greater challenge for the true minority, the LP-led coalition, to function as authentic fiscalizers. They need only to act as the conscience of our nation.

#NoToFakeMinority