CLARK FIELD, Pampanga – Senior leaders of Lakas-Kampi-CMD on Saturday chided the incoming majority bloc in the House of Representatives for its decision to dismantle the oversight committee, saying the move will weaken checks and balance in government.

Reps. Edcel Lagman of Albay and Danilo Suarez of Quezon also lamented reports that the Liberal Party-led majority has endorsed neophyte Bacolod City Rep. Anthony Golez to chair the Committee on Health.

Golez used to be one of the spokespersons for the administration of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, also the chairperson of Lakas-Kampi-CMD.

A political neophyte who had not been elected to any position in the past, Golez, a doctor, has been nominated to the post by the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC). If elected as the health panel chairman, Golez will overtake many senior congressmen who are also doctors.

Last Thursday, the House majority headed by Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr., revealed that the oversight panel will be dismantled in the 15th Congress because it would only duplicate the oversight functions of all committees.

Lagman, who will challenge Belmonte in the speakership post, aired strong suspicions about the move.

“Sa ngayon wala pang tinatago, nagsisimula pa lang , baka may gustong itago,” Lagman told reporters covering the Lakas-Kampi-CMD caucus. (“They are only starting yet they already are hiding something.”)

The veteran lawmaker said he could not understand why such an important panel would be abolished amid claims by the LP that transparency would be one of the hallmarks of the Aquino administration.

“That was the decision... to abolish,” he said.

Suarez, who used to head the oversight panel in the Lower House, said the move to dismantle the committee runs counter to the vow of transparency of the Aquino administration.

Suarez questioned the abolition, saying that the LP could not just unilaterally abolish the panel without consulting members of the 15th Congress.

“This should be put into a vote,” Suarez said even as he lamented that the tyranny of numbers could work against their move.

Suarez also pointed out that one of the main functions of the oversight panel is to “rate” the performance of the President and determine whether the Chief Executive has delivered on his promises made during the State-of-the-Nation Address (SoNA).

Lawyer Raul Lambino, who was designated as Lakas-Kampi-CMD spokesperson, shared Lagman’s views.

He said the abolition must have something to do with the panel’s investigation into the issue of the SCTEX access road to Hacienda Luisita.

In the previous Congress, Suarez had investigated the allegations that Hacienda Luisita, owned by the Aquinos and Cojuangcos, unduly benefitted from the construction of the access road which was funded by the Philippine government.

All the documents relative to the congressional investigation on the issue is with the oversight panel.