House rallies behind Speaker; bomb alert raised
By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, Reporter
THE GREAT majority of the House of Representatives rallied behind Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Monday, countering a senator’s allegation of his involvement in a questionable Charter change (“Cha-cha”) signature campaign.
As of 6:03 p.m. of Feb. 5 at the plenary session, 287 congressmen had signed the adoption of House Resolution No. 1562 which supports and upholds the “integrity and honor” of Romualdez and the chamber he leads against “intense assault from the Senate.”
The political storm dividing Congress heightened when presidential sister and Senator Maria Imelda “Imee” R. Marcos said last week that Mr. Romualdez, her first cousin, is behind the distribution of P20 million cash to gather enough signatures for a people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution.
Noel Oñate, lead convenor of the People’s Initiative for Reform Modernization and Action (PIRMA), told a Senate hearing that they coordinated with the Speaker in getting the 3% signature requirement per district to allow Charter change.
In his sponsorship speech, House Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio D. Gonzales said the Lower Chamber is not involved in the signature campaign as it was initiated by a private organization.
The resolution, a response to the Senate’s accusatory stance, condemned the Upper Chamber’s Jan. 30 hearing as an attempt to discredit Mr. Romualdez and the House.
In return, Senate President Juan Miguel F. Zubiri clarified that his statements focused on the institution rather than individual members.
BOMB THREATS
Simultaneously, the House found itself under heightened alert earlier in the day due to reported bomb threats against several congressmen.
House Secretary General Reginald S. Velasco, addressing the security measures, stated the seriousness with which they took the threats but refrained from disclosing the names of the targeted individuals.
“I cannot reveal the names of those who have received threats,” Mr. Velasco said, noting that Mr. Romualdez was not one of them.
While the threats’ relation to the push for “Cha-cha” remained unclear, Mr. Velasco reported suspicious motorcycle activity around the premises.
This comes amid alleged attempts to hack the House of Representatives’ website and data, Mr. Velasco said. “According to our IT (information technology) group, there’ve been…millions of attempts to deface, to hack our data, so there is really cyberthreats against the House of Representatives,” he said
During the weekend, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) reported attempts to hack into the websites of the Philippine Coast Guard and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
The IP address of the hackers was allegedly linked to Chinese state-owned telecommunications firm China United Network Communications Group.
“We have beefed up our cybersecurity with the help of the DICT, and we are planning to get a third party to help us secure our IT system here,” said Mr. Velasco.