Philippine President Gloria Magapacal-Arroyo on Sunday called for a ruling coalition meeting a day ahead a planned showdown in the lower House aimed at replacing the embattled Speaker Jose De Venecia, radio reports said.
The closed-door meeting was held inside Malacanang, the presidential office, with De Venecia, former president Fidel Ramos, military and police chiefs and a couple of other prominent political figures attending, Radio DzMM said.
It was the second known crisis meeting between Arroyo and De Venecia in the wake of Arroyo's two congressmen sons and members of her party Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) in the lower House initiated a manifesto to oust De Venecia last week.
Kampi president Luis Villafuerte claimed they had collected the supporting signature of 134 out of the 239 congressmen.
However, De Venecia said he had President Arroyo herself's "all-out support" and he is confident in getting "unwavering" support from at least 138 congressmen if the House is going to vote on his leadership when it resumes meeting on Monday.
According to Philippine congress rules, replacement of the Speaker needs the backing of 121 House members.
But observers said, based on both sides' claims, they either exaggerated the support or there might be some congressmen playing on the two sides.
De Venecia, who is in his fifth term as House Speaker, is the president of Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats, the largest bloc in the ruling coalition. He was considered a close ally to Arroyo but their relation reportedly turned sour when Joey De Venecia III, son of the Speaker, openly accused the first gentlemen, Arroyo's husband Jose Miguel Arroyo, of pocketing profits from an intervened government project in which the Speaker's son has an interest.
But De Venecia's opponents in the House said they wanted the Speaker gone for his inability to bring about reforms to the Congress not for his splitting from Arroyo.
Despite the presidential office's promise not to intervene in the congress internal matters, political allies of Arroyo had urged the president to act before House slumping into a turmoil and to avoid the possibility of De Venecia joining the opposition camp.
Source: Xinhua
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