House minority leader steps down, joins majority

MANILA 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. stepped down as the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and indicated his intent to join the majority bloc as he expressed confidence in the “pro-people” legislative agenda of the new speaker Lord Allan Velasco.

At the end of his Turno En Contra on the proposed 2021 national budget on Friday, Abante said, “I have full trust in the new leadership in its pursuit of a legislative agenda that is not only pro-people, but more importantly, responsive to the need to provide effective and sufficient interventions to control the Covid pandemic. And there is no better symbol of this trust than an expression of intent to join the Majority so I could be more proactive in providing urgently-needed legislation and Congressional oversight. On the instance that the Majority Leader favorably acts on this prayer, I trust that the Minority family will judiciously choose their next leader.”