Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez of Davao del Norte now wants the first elections under a federal government by 2022, when the president’s term ends.
Alvarez is leading the Duterte administration’s push for Charter change to pave the way for a shift to a federal system of government that will divide the country into different regions with greater autonomy and taxation powers.
“The first federal elections should be set in 2022 because we can’t terminate the President’s contract with the people just because we have a new Constitution,” Alvarez told reporters. He was referring to the constitutional six-year term limits of President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo, which end in 2022.
“We need to respect that six-year mandate. And regardless of the president’s take on this, I don’t think the vice president will also agree to (a shortened term because of the transition period to federalism),” Alvarez added. The new constitution, he said, could include a transitory provision stating that those who will win in the senatorial elections in 2019 would only sit for three years or until 2022.
“The new senators’ term can be reduced to 2022 because we will have the first federal elections by then. As for the rest of elected officials, we won’t have any problem because our term is really just up to three years,” Alvarez said.
The House leader assured the public that Congress, convening as a Constituent Assembly that will draft the new constitution, would consider the recommendations of the Consultative Committee appointed by President Duterte to review the 1987 Constitution.
The Consultative Committee members include former chief justice Reynato Puno, former senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, Jr, former La Salle dean Julio Teehankee, UST political science professor Edmund Soriano Tayao, and San Beda Graduate School of Law Dean Ranhilio Aquino. They took their oath of office on Tuesday, February 13.
“The (House) Committee (on Constitutional Amendments) are conducting hearings, but I have told them that hearings cannot be terminated just yet because the Consultative Committee would still submit its output. We will wait for the output of the Consultative Committee which will be for our consideration,” Alvarez said.
President Duterte said in December 2017 that Filipinos were not yet ready for federalism, and that the concept had yet to gain traction. Rep Luis Raymund Villafuerte, Jr of Camarines Sur said a well-organised information drive on federalism should get going this year. |
“We need enough time to educate our people both the benefits of federalism — the next step to decentralisation and devolution which is in accordance with the implementing genuine autonomy as provided for under the 1987 Constitution and the 1991 Local Government Code,” Villafuerte said in a statement on Wednesday.
Pantaleon Alvarez. PICTURE: Saiph121
