By Junex Doronio

SAYING THAT THERE’S TOO MUCH SPECULATION, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez has denied that the House of Representatives’ decision to strip Vice President Sara Duterte of her confidential funds for 2024 was aimed to derail her anticipated presidential run in 2028.

In a hastily called press conference on Thursday, October 5, Romualdez justified the House move, saying that even VP Duterte confidently told lawmakers that her office could live without confidential funds.

“That’s a bit too much speculation,” Romualdez maintained. “Under the circumstances, we felt it would be best that [the funds] be realigned to agencies and departments or areas we consider a priority.”

The Vice President who also sits as concurrent Education Secretary is requesting P650 million in combined confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) for 2024.

But the House of Representatives led by Romualdez decided to realign those funds to agencies protecting the West Philippine Sea.

Despite Romualdez’s denial, some political observers could not help but comment that the Speaker would not want Duterte to look like an underdog as Filipinos have a penchant for rooting for the perceived persecuted.

It can be noted that the gloves were taken off as early as May when suddenly former president and current Pampanga 2nd District Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was demoted from Senior Deputy House Speaker to a mere Deputy House Speaker.

Duterte subsequently resigned from Lakas-CMD headed by Romualdez and drew the first blood, so to speak, when in late May she posted a photo of herself with the  cryptic caption, “Sa imong ambisyon, do not be tambaloslos.” (In your ambition, do not be tambaloslos.)

Among Visayans, “tambaloslos” refers to a greedy mythical creature that has a large mouth and leads people astray.

Many political pundits believe that Inday Sara was referring to Martin Romualdez.

In June, Duterte also deliberately refused to mention PBBM’s middle name – Romualdez – during an event, which some of the Speaker’s allies felt insulted.

This early, however, many Visayans are rooting for Romualdez to succeed his first cousin President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in 2028.

Romualdez hails from Leyte and could be the first Waray to become the country’s fourth Visayan president after Sergio Osmeña Sr. of Cebu, Manuel Acuña Roxas of Capiz and Carlos Polistico Garcia of Bohol. (ai/mnm)