POLITICAL BUTTERFLIES AT THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Alexander Martin Remollino

In 2005, Rodolfo Valencia of the second district of Oriental Mindoro voted in favor of dismissing the impeachment complaint filed against then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“This has sown divisiveness among us,” he said in his speech explaining his vote. “My decision is not by my blind loyalty to the president but by my loyalty to my constituents. We cannot allow the economy to stagnate. The economy will not recover in the next five years if the president is impeached. There is unemployment, poverty, homelessness. This raging wildfire will cause damage. It is time to end all this bickering.”

The next year, he would also vote in favor of junking the second impeachment complaint against Arroyo.

Florencio “Joeben” Miraflores, of the lone district of Aklan, did not vote on the 2005 impeachment complaint. But he voted against the 2006 complaint.

Valencia and Miraflores, both formerly part of Arroyo’s Lakas-Kampi coalition, are now with the Liberal Party – the new administration party.

They are among the new members the Liberal Party swore in on June 25, or five days before Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino’s inauguration. That day the Liberal Party swore in 25 new members – 22 of whom are “defectors” from Lakas-Kampi... READ FULL ARTICLE