Ruling on Tiangco’s motion to reopen House budget talks being ‘out of order’ stricken off record

MANILA — The ruling declaring Navotas Lone District Representative Tobias Tiangco’s motion to reopen deliberations on the budget of the House of Representatives “out of order” was stricken off the record on Wednesday.

On Monday, Tiangco filed a motion for reconsideration after questioning the change in the schedule of plenary deliberations on Congress’ budget.

However, two days later, House Deputy Speaker Representative Raymond Mendoza approved a motion to strike this out of the record.

“There’s a motion to strike out from the record the ruling of the motion of reconsideration as having been declared out of order… Motion is approved,” Mendoza said.

Tiangco subsequently thanked the majority for the motion.

“I thank the majority for the motion and clarifying the events last Monday, and I thank the Speaker,” Tiangco said.

What preceded this, however, was an hour-long suspension of the plenary session.

According to Tiangco, the suspension occurred because he told lawmakers he would not budge unless the matter was corrected.

“Kasi sabi ko hindi ako papayag na hindi niyo i-correct ‘yan. It’s either you correct it o panindigan niyo. ‘Pag pinanindigan niyo ‘yan, ‘di testingin natin. ‘Edi puwede ako mag-reconsider ng lahat ng ahensiya ngayon… May rules kami. Huwag naman baluktutin ‘yung rules dahil lang mas marami sila,” Tiangco told reporters.

While the session was suspended, the Navotas lawmaker was seen speaking with House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III, who Tiangco said was simply “concerned.”

“Nag-usap lang kami kung ano ‘yung motion ko… I mean, nag-usap lang kami na– siguro, siyempre, concerned siya,” Tiangco said, adding there was no issue between them.

Before the session was suspended, House Deputy Speaker Janette Garin and Tiangco engaged in a heated back-and-forth over Garin’s ruling on Monday.

“Ang sabi niyo po noon, since wala po ako doon, hindi ako bumoto. Kaya hindi ako puwede mag-reconsider. But this section should be related to this section on voting. It cannot stand alone… Voting says, we vote either ayes or nays or nominal voting. There are two modes of voting: ayes and nays, and nominal voting,” Tiangco said during the plenary session.

“Gusto niyo balikan natin ‘yung video– hindi po umabot sa voting. Mayroon lang pong nag-motion to terminate. Mayroong nag-agree pero hindi po umabot sa voting,” Tiangco added.

Garin stood by her ruling, saying a motion for reconsideration is permitted only from a member who voted with the majority.

“With regard to your query whether an ayes and nays or a nominal voting was conducted, the ayes and nays is done when we approve a measure on second reading. In this case, it was a motion from the minority jointly done with the majority to terminate the period of interpellation. In other words, we are on the period of sponsorship, debate, and interpellation, and motions with regard to this are done by basic motions, not with ayes and nays,” Garin said.

Tiangco later proposed to “test” the ruling, saying he would move to reconsider the budget of all agencies tackled on Wednesday.

“If that is your ruling, I was present today. I voted with the approval of all agencies tackled today. So if we go by your ruling, do you mean to say I can move now to reconsider all this? Do you want to test your ruling? Let’s test it now,” Tiangco said.

When asked about his plan moving forward regarding the House budget, Tiangco acknowledged that a potential move to reopen talks in plenary would likely be outvoted.

“Tingnan natin. Tsaka ang problema doon, even if it is not in accordance, even if there’s no violation of our rules, if I request, pagbobotohan eh. So sigurado hindi naman ako mananalo doon sa botohan na i-open eh, ‘di ba? Even if it’s not against our rules, ‘pag nag-request ako, ‘pag ayaw ng majority, ganoon din ang pupuntahan noon,” Tiangco said.

Separately, Tiangco believes the conviction threshold of the impeachment court should remain at 16—representing two-thirds of all 24 Senate members—noting that lawmakers such as Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta, though currently detained, remain official members of the Senate.

This was Tiangco’s reaction to the impeachment court approving a revised threshold of votes needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte in the impeachment trial.