Alvarez: Duterte will lead transition to federalism
President Duterte will remain the country’s chief executive in the transition to a federal system of government, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said yesterday.
“He will still be President during the transition period. Leni Robredo will still be the Vice President. The same with senators and congressmen,” he told a news conference.
He said the planned federal Constitution would not shorten the tenure of Duterte and Robredo.
“They have a six-year contract with our people. We will not disturb that. They will have to finish their term up to 2022, when the first federal elections will be held,” he said.
As for senators who would be elected for six years in the elections next year, he said “maybe it could be provided in the new Constitution that their term would be up to 2022.”
“As for us congressmen who will be elected next year, we have no problem. Our term of office is just three years,” he added.
Alvarez pointed out that a federal Charter, if approved next year by the people in a plebiscite, could not be immediately implemented. Thus, the need for a transition government led by the President, he stressed.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, a federalism proponent, said he believes people would accept the prospect of Duterte leading the transition to the federal system.
The President enjoys wide popular support as shown by the “high public satisfaction ratings he has received in the latest tracking poll as a result of his no-nonsense campaign against corruption, his concrete, well-planned anti-poverty initiatives and even his game-changing move to shift the country’s foreign policy focus to Asia,” he said.
“His consistently high ratings illustrate that most Filipinos welcome and embrace his non-traditional, no-nonsense type of leadership. Most Filipinos appreciate the fact that he acts swiftly and decisively,” he said.
Villafuerte also urged the House of Representatives and the administration to conduct a nationwide information campaign on federalism starting this year so they would “have enough time to educate the people about how this progressive form of government would be most beneficial for them, in terms of spreading the country’s economic gains to the countryside and raising rural incomes.”
On Tuesday, Duterte told members of his consultative committee on Charter change that he would not want any position in the transition government.
He said he would step down two years ahead of the expiration of his term if a fully functional federal system was in place in 2020.
“If we can have that in 2020, I will commit to you now (and) you do not have to remind me, if there can be a working federal setup by year 2020, I am going to step down,” he said.