Rody can run; Rody can wait
Roque reiterated that the President has yet to decide whether he would heed the call of PDP-Laban’s leading members for him to join the vice-presidential race in 2022
While President Rodrigo Duterte suspends to make a decision whether he would run for vice president in the 2022 elections, the Palace on Monday defended him from claims that doing so would violate the Constitution.
Presidential spokesperson Secretary
Harry Roque insisted that Duterte is not barred from pursuing the government’s second-highest post once he steps down from Malacañang, based on the 1987 Constitution.
“There is absolutely no prohibition for a president to run for vice president. There is no literal
provision in the Constitution that states that principle,” Roque said in a televised briefing.
His remarks came in response to Christian Monsod, one of the framers of the Charter, after the former chairperson of the Commission on Elections slammed the efforts of the ruling PDP-Laban to convince Duterte to run for vice president.
In an interview over the weekend in an online news site, Monsod said the move was a clear attempt to “circumvent the constitutional provision on re-election”.
Roque then challenged Monsod to show proof that Duterte cannot join the vice-presidential race after his term ends.
“If you can show me a provision that bars a president from running for the position of the vice president then, of course, the President will honor that provision,” he said.
Last week, Roque said what is not prohibited in the 1987 Constitution is allowed.
The Charter provides a six-year term for a Chief Executive without re-election, but it is silent on a case of a sitting president running for vice president after his term.
Monsod is among those saying that Duterte’s possible vice-presidential bid may go against the spirit of the Constitution, since whoever is elected president can resign anytime and hand the power to the elected vice president.
He explained that the framers of the Charter included the “no re-election” provision to ensure that no chief executive would hold the country’s top post for over six years.
In previous years, former presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Joseph Estrada ran for local posts after serving as Philippine leaders.
Estrada was elected president in 1998, but he was ousted in 2001 following allegations of corruption. Nine years later, he ran again for president but lost to Liberal Party standard-bearer Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
He won as Manila mayor during the 2013 elections and he was re-elected in 2016.
Meanwhile, Arroyo assumed the presidency in 2001 after Estrada’s ouster and she was later elected as Chief Executive until 2010.
After her presidency, she was elected as representative of Pampanga’s second district in 2010. In 2018, she became the Speaker of the House of Representatives until her retirement in 2019.
Those criticizing Duterte’s purported plan to run for vice president argued that it was different from Arroyo’s term as House Speaker, since she was only fourth in the line of the presidential succession at the time.
There is absolutely no prohibition for a president to run for vice president. There is no literal provision in the Constitution that states that principle.
Under the 35-year-old Charter, the line of presidential succession follows the order of Vice President, Senate President, and House Speaker.
Allowing a former president to run as vice president would give the former “an opportunity not by re-election, but by succession to go around the constitutional prohibition,” said lawyer Howard Calleja, one of the convenors of opposition coalition 1Sambayan.
No decision yet
Roque reiterated that the President has yet to decide whether he would heed the call of PDP-Laban’s leading members for him to join the vice-presidential race in 2022.
The Palace official earlier said that the President would think of what is best for the country as he waits for “divine intervention” before making a decision.
On 31 May, the national council of the Philippines’ dominant political party held a meeting in vote-rich Cebu and adopted a resolution urging Duterte to run for vice president.
A copy of the resolution was submitted by the party to the President’s office last Thursday. He has yet to reply, said PDP-Laban interim secretary-general Melvin Matibag.
Matibag was among the 160 members of PDP-Laban’s national council who attended the Cebu meeting, where he was also named acting secretary-general after previously serving as deputy secretary-general.
“In PDP-Laban, we are praying harder to move mountains and to move the heart of the President so he will consider our call,” he told the Tribune in a phone call over the weekend.
“Isn’t it that when we pray, there’s a 50 percent chance that our prayers will be heard. So, we will pray harder to ask God to move the heart of the President,” Matibag added.
Duterte-Duterte
Roque, meanwhile, took a swipe at former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV for claiming that Filipino voters would reject a Duterte-Duterte tandem in 2022, amid speculations that the Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio will run for president.
He said Trillanes, a staunch critic of the Duterte administration, should not make such claims that he is speaking for the entire Filipino population.
“See you on election day. The citizens would decide on that,” he told the ex-lawmaker.
“It’s puzzling that the opposition thinks that it speaks for the nation. Look at the survey, only five percent (of respondents) don’t support the President. Although you are claiming that you are the voice of the public, maybe you are just the voice of one barangay,” he added.
The Palace official urged the public to carefully look at a candidate’s qualifications before casting their votes.
“In choosing a leader, we should look at his abilities, experience, and the many problems of our country that need solving,” Roque said.
Duterte-Carpio, the Chief Executive’s eldest daughter, has yet to announce her political plans, but several political figures have visited her in Davao City.
The younger Duterte is not a member of PDP-Laban but has close ties with some of the party’s stalwarts.