Dwayne Pelagio

Sagip party-list Representative Rodante Marcoleta, a known Duterte ally, was removed from five House committees on Sept. 25 just before the lower chamber approved the P6.35-trillion 2025 budget on its third and final reading.

Photo Courtesy of Rappler.

Marcoleta was expelled from the powerful committee on appointments, and other 4 panels just before the 2025 budget was approved by the House.

During the Sept. 25 plenary session, House Deputy Majority Leader Iloilo City Rep. Jam Baronda moved to nominate Manila Teachers party-list Rep. Virgilio Lacson to replace Marcoleta.

“Mr. Speaker, on the part of the majority, I move to nominate and elect to the Commission on Appointments, to the Committee on Energy, to the Committee on Justice, to the Committee on Public Accounts and (the Committee on) Consti Amendments Representative Virgilio Lacson vice Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, so move,” Baronda said in the plenary session before the lower chamber starts its six-week recess.

“Is there any objection? The chair hears none, the motion is approved,” Presiding Officer, House Deputy Speaker and Cebu 5th District Representative Duke Frasco said.

There was no reason for changes given in the plenary.

“This is the price I have to pay for adhering to established rules, regulations, as well as the standards of parliamentary practice,” Marcoleta said in a message.

“I may have been bloodied, but will remain unbowed fighting for what is just and right,” he added.

Marcoleta called out lawmakers last Sept. 10 for not observing the tradition of giving courtesy to the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

“Up to 2023, we have kept the tradition. Now, several questions have been raised. In 2023, 22 minutes; 2022, 13 minutes. We have been fighting about the budget earlier, and now we are about to quarrel again on the budget,” he said in the Sept. 10 hearing, pertaining to the budget proposal hearings of the then-Vice President Leni Robredo.

Marcoleta is still a member of the 4 House committees: Basic Education and Culture, Government Enterprises and Privatization, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation.