A House speakership face-off is set today after President Gloria Arroyo yesterday failed to settle a rift between two of her allies aspiring for the post as the 14th Congress opens.

Failure to settle the speakership dispute could mar the President's delivery of her State of the Nation Address before the joint session of congress this afternoon. Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. of Pangasinan, the president of the Lakas-CMD, and Rep. Pablo Garcia of Cebu, a prominent member of KAMPI, yesterday said they would contest the speakership in the plenary assembly this morning, hours before the SONA.

Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella yesterday said still hopes the congressmen will settle the dispute over the House' top post before the President delivers her SONA.

He said if the speakership is not settled when the 14th Congress opens today, the President's SONA may not push through and they don't want to put her in an embarrassing situation.

Puentevella said the caucus supposedly to be held yesterday, which was called by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as head of the ruling coalition, to settle the issue, was cancelled.

Puentevella said they fear that the group of Garcia will demand for a secret balloting and for the voting to be nominal which will take some time. If they cannot settle the issue, they may not have a Speaker by 4 p.m. and this will be the first time in history, he said.

"If there is no Speaker, there will be no SONA," he added.

However, he said they don't want to embarrass the President before the diplomatic corps and the public so they will try to settle the dispute between De Venecia, who is gunning for a fifth term, and Garcia. He is optimistic they will find a solution, he added.

Meanwhile, Puentevella said he will propose a bill pushing for the creation of a Department of Foreign Affairs sub-regional office in Bacolod City.

This was perceived to be in reaction to a resolution, authored by Councilor Alex Paglumotan, saying that the DFA is very vital to the needs of the Bacoleños and Negrenses as far as foreign related traveling activity is concerned.

The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod had recently passed a resolution requesting the seven congressmen in Negros Occidental and the Lone District of Bacolod City to work on congressional action for the establishment of the DFA sub-regional office in the city or in the province.

Records show that in the actual latest and projected census, based on population, Negros Occidental has 2,713,999 and Bacolod has 453,873, it said.

The SP resolution said thousands of Bacoleños and Negrenses are traveling as tourists or businessmen or working as Overseas Filipino Workers and have to process their travel documents at the DFA regional office Iloilo City.*CGS

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