Admin allies in Congress should take cue from Duterte’s strong statement vs term extension, Palace says

January 23, 2018

President Rodrigo Duterte's allies in Congress should take cue from his categorical statement that he was not interested to further prolong his term even for one day, Malacanang said on Tuesday.

In a press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque echoed what Duterte has said during an event in Compostela Valley on Monday ordering the military to shoot him if he stays in power even for a day.

"Whatever happens in the transitory provision, consider him out of the question," Roque said, referring to the move of Congress to change the 1987 Constitution that will pave the way for a federal form of government from presidential.

He also believed most lawmakers would not favor constitutional succession. This means, Vice President Leni Robredo, head of opposition Liberal Party, could not be the transition leader.

"I don’t think majority would want constitutional succession, so they better provide for a transition that would mean that the President will step down in 2022," Roque said.

"Unless they want Leni Robredo to take over as transitional leader, they come up with a transitory provision that would, for all intents and purposes, make sure that we would have a new president in 2022," he added.

The Senate and House of Representatives are separately holding their hearing on the move to change the Constitution.

But they have differing opinion as to whether they would vote jointly or separately for the proposal to amend the Charter.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez even said the House could proceed with the voting even without the senators because they could attain the vote of two-thirds as provided by the Constitution.

He also threatened the anti-federalism lawmakers they would get zero budget, which later on he claimed was just a joke.

Roque expressed belief the conflicting position of the Senate and the House could be resolved through consensus.

"Well, I think that is something both houses of Congress must discuss. From my brief experience in Congress, Congress is not just deliberative, it’s consensual, you need to build consensus and I have the same consensus building will have to be resorted to between the House and the Senate on the issue of how to move forward with constituent assembly," said Roque, a former party-list representative prior to becoming the presidential spokesman.

He said the issue could be brought to the Supreme Court for adjudication.

As to Alvarez's joke, Roque said he did not want to comment on this.

"But I will say that we welcome that remark because what we want is an informed choice of voting on federalism by our people," he said. Celerina Monte/DMS