Cayetano apologized to me — Velasco

Newly-installed House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco on Monday disclosed that Taguig Representative Alan Peter Cayetano apologized to him during their meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte last week.

After the Congress ratified Velasco’s speakership election last 13 October, the two were called by President Duterte for a meeting in Malacanang.

Velasco described Cayetano in the said meeting as “cordial, friendly and apologetic” towards him and the Chief Executive.

“He just said, ‘I am sorry for what happened.’ He kept saying he might have misread the instructions of the President,” Velasco said in a television interview.

The Marinduque congressman bared his offer to Cayetano as deputy speaker still stands—a position offered out of respect to him as former House Speaker.

He, however, hasn’t talked to Cayetano yet after the Malacanang meeting which kept him from personally offering the post to his predecessor.

“If he would allow, I want to talk to him again,” said Velasco.

When asked whether the infrastructures funds of Taguig under the proposed 2021 national budget will be amended, the House leader said no promise was made about it.

Velasco believes budget allocations in congressional districts must not be necessarily equal but equitable.

“If a district needs more budgets, it will get more. If a district needs less, it will get lesser,” he explained.