"If he decides to leave the majority and join us, we will welcome him. He will be a valuable addition to our ranks," he said.
Escudero refused to speculate on what prompted Barbers to give up the accounts committee, the panel that officially controls House finances.
Barbers had been committee chairman since the last Congress. Last week, in a letter to Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., he formalized his long-rumored resignation, saying he needed more time to attend to his post-graduate studies at the University of the Philippines. He will be replaced by Mindoro Occidental Rep. Amelita Villarosa.
Barbers, who belongs to the ruling Lakas party, has been trying to distance himself from the administration ever since his father, former senator Robert Barbers, lost his re-election bid in last year’s general elections.
He had voted with the opposition against President Arroyo’s controversial proposal to increase the value-added tax from 10 percent to 12 percent.
He had also rejected the majority’s offer to be the House spokesman and to defend the administration’s legislative proposals.
Sources said the Barbers family feels that its patriarch did not get sufficient help from the ruling party and the Arroyo administration in his re-election bid and his election protest against Sen. Rodolfo Biazon. — Jess Diaz