Romualdez, allies map out transition after gaining ‘supermajority’
Weeks before the current Congress resumes session and the newly elected lawmakers take their seats in the next one, key officers of the House of Representatives have already galvanized more than a majority of them to support Speaker Martin Romualdez, ensuring this early that he stays at the helm.
Deputy Speaker and Quezon Rep. David Suarez said that as of Saturday, 240 out of 315 elected representatives have already signed a manifesto of support to keep Romualdez, who chairs the dominant Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) political party in the House, as the Speaker.
“This is already a supermajority,” added Suarez, himself a Lakas-CMD stalwart. “Tapos na (It’s done). The Speaker has the numbers.”
That 240 figure “keeps climbing,” he added. “This is not just about party politics. It’s about unity, output, and trust in the Speaker’s steady hand and principled leadership.”
Suarez said that the move was backed by lawmakers from the major blocs in the House, including Lakas-CMD with 104 members, National Unity Party, Nationalist People’s Coalition, Nacionalista Party, Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, and the Party-list Coalition Foundation Inc.
This came amid reports that Romualdez may be replaced in the 20th Congress following the battering of the Marcos administration’s Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial slate where only five of the original 12 candidates won.
Sara’s call to Pulong
Vice President Sara Duterte told reporters in Davao City on Saturday that she was urging her brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo “Pulong” Duterte, to run for Speaker.
“If you won’t get the House speakership, kunin mo ang (get the) minority (leader position),” she said she told her brother. “Wala pa siyang sagot (he has not yet responded). Maybe, he is still thinking about it.”
Suarez said that with the Speaker’s “broad support, any attempt to challenge the Speaker’s leadership is simply unrealistic.”
“The House wants stability and progress, and Speaker Romualdez delivers both,” he said.
Romualdez, himself a key figure in the Alyansa, earlier promised to use his party’s full machinery to deliver a decisive victory for the administration’s Senate slate—only for it to be whipped badly even in his home province Leyte.
Still ‘the strongest’
Nevertheless, Suarez said the lawmakers still perceive Romualdez as the “strongest and most reliable partner” of President Marcos, the Speaker’s cousin, who would push the Bagong Pilipinas agenda with “results-driven governance.”
While no formal public ceremony has been set, a full declaration of support is expected before the opening of the 20th Congress in July.
Other House figures continue to dismiss claims that lawmakers who backed the impeachment of the Vice President paid the price at the polls. In all, 235 supported the impeachment, including the 215 who signed the complaint that was immediately sent to Senate on Feb. 5.
House quad committee chair and outgoing Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers pointed out that 36 out of 44 Mindanao lawmakers who signed the complaint were reelected. Mindanao has a total of 60 district representatives.
“That’s a clear 81.81 percent-win rate,” he said. “If the impeachment was such a political liability, we would’ve been wiped out in our own districts. But we were not—we were overwhelmingly returned to office.”
Among those who were reelected were Representatives Zia Alonto Adiong and Yasser Balindong of Lanao del Sur, Romeo Momo of Surigao del Sur, Dimszar Sali of Tawi-Tawi, Roberto “Pinpin” Uy Jr. of Zamboanga del Norte, Samantha Santos of Cotabato, Rep. Keith Flores, Jose Manuel Alba of Bukidnon and also John Tracy Cagas of Davao del Sur.
Barbers is term-limited and did not pursue an elective post for 2025. House Majority Leader Manuel Dalipe, who steered the impeachment proceedings, lost the race for mayor of Zamboanga City.
Barbers said the “blame game” now being waged by some quarters trying to pin Alyansa’s Senate losses on the impeachment complaint is both unfair and inaccurate.
“Senate campaigns are won with message, machinery, and momentum—not by shielding sacred cows from scrutiny. If some candidates underperformed, it was because we didn’t connect enough at the national level, not because we fought for truth and transparency,” Barbers said.
“Let’s be honest—voters are smarter than we give them credit for. They did not vote based on who defended or attacked a Duterte. They voted for local leaders who delivered, who stood their ground, and who worked with integrity,” he added.
Romualdez last week said the poll victory of the Lakas-CMD candidates was a “sweeping vote of confidence.”
The Lakas-CMD party president, who was reelected as Leyte 1st district representative, said the electoral victories by members reaffirmed the party’s position as the country’s dominant political force.
In addition to its 104 Lakas-CMD members who gained or kept their seats in the House, there were also 15 governors, 22 vice governors, 409 city and town mayors and 23 vice mayors who belong to the party, according to its executive director Anna Capella Velasco.
“This is a victory of trust. And with that trust comes a duty to serve with even greater resolve,” Romualdez said on Wednesday.
“This is not just a win for Lakas-CMD. This is a strong signal from the Filipino people: they want steady hands, clear direction, and leadership that puts service above self,” he said.
The poll victory means that the people are calling on them to “to govern better, to listen harder, and to deliver faster.”
“That’s exactly what we intend to do,” Romualdez said, adding that the people “want continuity, they want performance, and they want public servants they can count on.” —WITH A REPORT FROM GERMELINA LACORTE
