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MANILA, Philippines – Despite the involvement of Marikina 2nd District Representative Stella Luz Quimbo in the defense of the controversial confidential and intelligence (CIF) funds of Vice President Sara Duterte, the opposition Liberal Party (LP) said the lawmaker remains their member.
“The enduring tradition of the Liberal Party is to allow its members to take independent views on national issues in recognition of a member’s freedom of expression and dissent. Rep. Stella Quimbo is still a member of the Liberal Party,” LP’s management committee said in a statement on Saturday, October 7.
The LP explained that its decision to not sanction Quimbo was unanimously reached by the management committee, along with some district representatives.
The party of the late former presidents Corazon Aquino and Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III said there was a clamor to sanction Quimbo due to the latter’s stance on some of the Marcos government’s controversial moves. This included Quimbo’s defense of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education’s confidential funds, and the lawmaker’s support for the Maharlika Investment Fund.
Quimbo’s retention in the party means the LP’s contingent in the lower chamber would not be reduced. Once a dominant party, the LP now has seven members in the House of Representatives, according to LP president and Albay 1st District Representative Edcel Lagman.
A former professor at the University of the Philippines School of Economics, Quimbo was appointed by Noynoy Aquino in 2016 as a commissioner at the Philippine Competition Commission.
She resigned in 2019, ran for Congress under the LP’s flag, and won the Marikina 2nd District seat that year. Quimbo was reelected in 2022.
In 2023, Quimbo made news after she eagerly defended Vice President Duterte’s receipt of confidential funds. Later on, it was also Quimbo who exposed that the OVP’s P125-million confidential funds in 2022 were spent in a shorter period of time – within 11 days – and not 19, as earlier reported.
On September 27, the House of Representatives committed to remove Duterte’s confidential funds in the 2024 budget. – Rappler.com
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