MANILA, Philippines – Like their partymates in the Senate, Liberal Party (LP) congressmen in the House of Representatives will remain in the supermajority bloc, Marikina City 2nd District Representative Miro Quimbo said on Friday, December 9

Quimbo told Rappler that the 27 LP congressmen will keep their coalition agreement with President Rodrigo Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) after Vice President Leni Robredo’s resignation from the Cabinet.

“We have all decided to stay, including the senators. We have come to the common decision to remain part of the majority coalition,” he said.

Quimbo said this is was the “direction” given to them “by no less than the VP in several meetings.”

Robredo quit her post as housing czar after Duterte, through a text message from Cabinet Secretary Jun Evasco Jr, ordered her to stop attending Cabinet meetings starting Monday, December 4.

Two of the 5 LP legislators who decided to join the House independent minority bloc had urged their colleagues to leave the supermajority after Robredo’s resignation.

Quimbo explained that while the LP congressmen have chosen to stay with the House supermajority, they will be critical of administration policies they don’t agree with, and support those they believe in – the same position taken by Robredo.

“At this point in time, as far as the House is concerned, we continue support the leadership of Speaker [Pantaleon] Alvarez,” said Quimbo.

“We have always been critical of things we disagree with and support things we are in agreement with,” he added.

Like Robredo, some of her party mates in Congress are also opposed to the death penalty bill and the hero’s burial for dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and have expressed concern about the spate in killings in the government’s war on drugs.

When she announced her resignation the Vice President said she feared being unseated in favor of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, a close friend of Duterte. The President, however, has assured her, through a media interview, that she would serve “until the very end of her term.” – Rappler.com