No term extension under Cha-Cha bid – Palace

MALACAÑANG warded off fears over a potential term extension for President Rodrigo Duterte and other elective officials under the charter change proposal pending in Congress.

In a press briefing, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. reiterated that the President is not interested in clinging to power beyond June 2022 when his six-year term ends.

“Wala pong katuturan iyang mga tsismis na iyan,” Roque said in response to remarks circulating on social media that the charter change initiative was a bid to keep Duterte in office until 2025. “The President has made it clear, wala po siyang kahit anong kagustuhan na manatili ng isang minuto man lang beyond his term of office.”

Roque said Duterte is focused on the government’s COVID-19 response.

“Wala pong ibang top priority ang Pangulo kung hindi matapos po itong pandemyang ito sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng bakuna sa ating mga kababayan,” he said.

The House committee on constitutional amendments is set to convene on January 13 for a hearing regarding the proposal to amend the “restrictive” economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.

A similar resolution has also been filed last month at the Senate by administration senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Francis Tolentino asking both houses of Congress to convene as a constituent assembly for the purpose of amending the Constitution.

The amendments will be limited to the provisions on “democratic representation and the economic provisions” of the Constitution, the resolution read.

“Katungkulan po iyan ng mga mambabatas. That is their sole, exclusive prerogative; nirirespeto po natin iyan,” Roque said.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III, however, said Duterte does not want a term extension but rather an amendment to the party-list system.

Sotto said the President had expressed concern about party-list lawmakers with alleged ties to the communist rebels. Roque said he had no idea about the matter.

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