A House disciplinary body moved on Tuesday, June 2, to remove Cavite 4th District Rep. Francisco “Kiko” Barzaga from Congress entirely, escalating a months-long standoff that had already cost the neophyte legislator two separate suspensions.
The recommendation to expel was laid before the plenary by Rep. JC Abalos of the 4Ps party-list, who chairs the Committee on Ethics and Privileges and sponsored its report. According to Abalos, the panel bundled several pending complaints against Barzaga into a single set of consolidated cases, concluding that the lawmaker had run afoul of House rules on multiple counts and engaged in conduct it deemed disorderly.
Expulsion sits at the top of the ladder of penalties the chamber can hand down to one of its own, a step beyond the suspensions that ordinarily precede it. Barzaga, 27, had already absorbed two 60-day suspensions without pay — the first in December 2025 over Facebook content his colleagues branded reckless, the second in February 2026 after the committee found he had repeated and sharpened the same behavior while still serving the earlier penalty.
The cases against the Cavite representative trace back in part to social media posts alleging that members of the National Unity Party took bribes from business magnate Enrique Razon, claims the ethics panel previously characterized as unsupported and defamatory. The committee has also faulted Barzaga for remarks targeting deceased colleagues and for skipping its hearings, treating his refusal to appear as defiance of the chamber’s authority.
Throughout the proceedings, Barzaga — known around the House for adopting a cat persona and earning the nickname “congressman meow meow” — has refused to back down, framing the disciplinary push as politically driven and casting himself rather than his conduct as the target.
Should the plenary adopt the report, Barzaga would join a short list of lawmakers ousted from the chamber in recent years, among them former Negros Oriental Rep. Arnie Teves, expelled in 2023 over disorderly behavior and code-of-conduct violations after failing to return home to answer accusations against him.
