Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo walked up the rostrum of the Batasan main session hall at 3:49 p.m. Monday, July 23, with her allies proclaiming her as the new Speaker of the House after a manifesto showed her getting get a majority of the 292-member Congress.
Arroyo and her allies were celebrating on stage with the sound system cut off just minutes before President Rodrigo Duterte landed at the Batasan helipad where he was met by Senate President Tito Sotto and Speaker Bebot Alvarez.
Arroyo’s victory came just six hours after Alvare failed to parry efforts to eject him from office triggered reportedly by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and carried out by Arroyo’s loyalists led by Quezon Rep. Danny Suarez, Bohol Rep. Art Yap, Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya, and Alvarez’s former buddy turned nemesis, Davao del Norte Rep. Tonyboy Floirendo.
A source said Arroyo had gathered more than the minimum 147 votes needed to change Alvarez who has been Speaker for the first two years of the 17th Congress. As of 1 p.m., 180 members have signed to vote for Arroyo as Speaker.
Pages of the Manifesto of Support for Rep. GMA as Speaker pic.twitter.com/iWcGAAdXfu
— RG Cruz ABS-CBN News (@1rgcruz) July 23, 2018
Congressmen Met with Rep. Arroyo at the lounge before the SONA. pic.twitter.com/9W1snbi7jF
— RG Cruz ABS-CBN News (@1rgcruz) July 23, 2018
