House Speaker and Quezon City Congressmen Sonny Belmonte retains his leadership in the 16th Congress as he was elected as the House Speaker anew. The race for the minority post on the other hand became a close fight between San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora & Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez.
According to the House Rules, the candidates for Speaker who gets the second highest number of votes automatically becomes the House Minority Leader. Rep. Ronaldo Zamora got a total of 18 votes, while Rep. Romualdez received 16 votes.
A total of 245 members of the House of Representatives voted in favor of Belmonte. Seven of them nominated Belmonte for his second term as Speaker, citing his leadership in the 15th Congress. One of the most successful COngress who made some significant bills p(–foul word(s) removed–)ed into law.
Rep. Romualdez is the current Lakas-NUCD President and a close ally of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He made an early bid for the House Minority leader post courting members of the Makabayan bloc as well as the Unite Nationalist Alliance (UNA).
The son of Benjamin Romualdez, Rep. Martin Romualdez, wanted to retain the hold of Lakas-NUCD on the minority position. Former Quezon Rep Danilo Suarez, a Lakas-NUCD stalwart, was the minority leader in the 15th Congress.
The new Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Congressman Zamora is a former Marcos ally, he belongs to the local Partido Magdiwang but has close ties with the Nacionalista Party and the reigning Liberal Party. His brother, Buddy Zamora helped finaced the 2010 presidential campaign of President Benigno Aquino III.
The opposition party UNA in the Lower House decided to join the majority coalition headed by Congressman Sonny Belmonte.
