MALACAÑANG has disputed former Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide Jr.’s claim that President Rodrigo Duterte wants to stay in power as transitory president.
Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. said it would have been easier for the President to stay in office by simply not asking the Consultative Committee (Con-com) to change the original transitory provisions in which he was designated as the head of the Federal Transition Commission.
“There is no sense” in the President asking that there be an elected transition leader “if he just wants to stay in his post,” Roque said in a mix of English and Filipino. “All he had to do was to stay in office if that’s what he wants. So what Chief Justice Davide is saying is wrong, with all due respect.”
Davide, a 1986 Constitutional Commission member, said that Duterte is not barred from seeking to become the transition government head under the transitory provisions of the proposed Charter, although there was a mention that the incumbent president is prohibited from running as President in 2022 elections.
Davide warned that the proposal could also pave the way for former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. to run and win as transitory vice president.
Marcos lost to Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo in 2016 polls and has sought a recount of votes because he claimed that he was a victim of “massive cheating.”
Roque, however, ruled out any possibility that President Duterte will run as transition president. “He asked that the transition leader be elected, and then he will run as transition leader? It will not simply make sense,” he said.
Con-com Chairman and former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno said in an earlier interview that they changed the original transitory provisions according to the President’s “special request” to include a provision that will bar him from seeking reelection in 2022.
Asked if the President will allow no election (no-el) scenario through people’s initiative, Roque said they can’t do anything about it because that’s the nature of people’s initiative.
“If it is done through people’s initiative, what can we do if it already came from citizens, right?” he said.
Still, Roque said the President wants to see all of his allies not deriving any benefit from Charter change.
“He has asked the Consultative Committee to include the provision that would ensure that he will not benefit from Charter change. He would like to see all his allies do the same thing—not to benefit from Charter change, leading by way of example,” he said.
House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez earlier asserted that instead of Congress acting as Constituent Assembly, Charter change can be done through the so-called people’s initiative provision in the 1987 Constitution.
However, Senate President Vicente “Tito” C. Sotto III said on Thursday that holding a people’s initiative to postpone the 2019 midterm elections will first require an enabling law.