‘Belmonte has numbers to keep speakership’

Congressmen supporting Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday he enjoys broad support and has enough votes to thwart any move by pro-Estrada allies to unseat him.

The Belmonte supporters were reacting to reports that congressmen, led by Rep. Agapito Aquino (LDP, Makati), who remain loyal to deposed President Joseph Estrada will try to retake control of the House.

Belmonte defeated Aquino by a 112-79 vote last week when a Lakas-led majority coalition took over the leadership of the larger chamber of Congress.

Representatives Ralph Recto (Independent, Batangas) and Juan Miguel Zubiri (Lakas, Bukidnon) expressed doubts on whether pro-Estrada allies can still muster enough votes for a counter coup.

Recto said the Estrada loyalists have dwindled in number since many of them have defected to the majority bloc.

He said a large group of Aquino’s own partymates in the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino did not vote for him.

The Batangas congressman was referring to a breakaway faction of more than 15 LDP members led by Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla, who was voted deputy speaker for Luzon.

The Padilla group supported the impeachment complaint against Estrada from Day One.

For his part, Zubiri said if Aquino and his supporters think they can retake the speakership in the remaining six days that Congress will hold session, "they must be dreaming."

He said given the political reality that there is a new Lakas-led majority in the House, it would be difficult for the Makati congressman to overcome Belmonte’s 33-vote margin.

Besides Lakas, the other groups supporting the new Speaker are the Conscience Coalition of former Speaker Manuel Villar Jr., the Liberal Party, Padilla’s LDP bloc, and defectors from the former ruling party.

Meanwhile, Belmonte vowed to push for computer literacy among the youth as a key to the Filipinos’ global competitiveness.

He said the country is lagging behind in information technology because there is lack of emphasis on computer and IT-related education in public schools.

He told residents of Barangay Lagro that in his district, he promoted computer education by distributing some 800 computers to public schools.

"I was inspired to initiate this program after I visited a private school in our city which offers computer education from grade one to high school," he said.

The Speaker donated cash prizes to the winners of the barangay’s "Greenest, Cleanest and Most Lighted Street" contest.