Senate Minority Leader Frank Drilon doubts the legality of outgoing President Duterte’s dream to stay in power by running as vice president in the next elections when Duterte completes his single six-year presidential term provided under the Constitution.
A former Secretary of Justice, Drilon affirmed that President Duterte’s wish to run for vice president would “go against the spirit of the Constitution that clearly prohibits a second term for the President.”
Drilon declares this is simply because “a vice president can become President anytime in case of resignation, impeachment, death, and permanent incapacity of the President.”
In a statement on Friday, the opposition Senator warns that “while the wording of the Constitution does not prohibit the President to run for any elected position, to run for vice president would contravene the spirit of the Constitution and could pose a serious problem of succession to the presidency later on.”
A former Secretary of the Department of Justice, the Senate Minority Leader asserted that “Article VII, Section 4 of the Constitution is clear that the President shall not be eligible for any re-election,” stressing that the spirit of the provision is clear: to allow only one term for the president and to prohibit two terms, affirming that “no person can occupy the highest position in the land for two terms.”
Drilon added that Article VII, Section 4 further states that “No person who has succeeded as President and has served as such for more than four years shall be qualified for election to the same office at any time.”
The Senate Minority Leader recalled that during his stint as Executive Secretary of the late President Corazon Aquino, “certain quarters wanted the late President to run as president again” on the theory that the Constitution was not applicable to her since she was elected under an interim “Freedom Constitution.”
Sen. Drilon added President Cory Aquino refused because it would contravene the spirit of the Constitution which only allows one term for the President.
“Hindi lumusot ang Cha-cha kaya susubukan nilang mag-tango. The Filipinos should not allow this clear circumvention of the spirit of the Constitution. We should oppose any attempt to circumvent our Constitution,” says Drilon.
Warning that Duterte’s possible vice-presidential run will “create a serious problem of succession to the presidency” if he wins in the upcoming 2022 national elections, citing, for instance,that “in case of resignation, impeachment, death, and permanent incapacity of the President, the Vice President is first in the line of succession to the presidency.”
“Can Duterte assume the role of the president again?” asks Drilon, anticipating that it “will create a big question mark in an otherwise clear and established presidential line of succession later on.”
Seeing that “it will destroy the equilibrium,” Drilon agreed with former Commission on Election chairman Christian Monsod, one of the framers of the Constitution, who also saw President Duterte’s possible vice-presidential run could be a “backdoor to the Presidency.”
The Senator reminded that “Attorney Monsod, being among the framers of the Constitution, is in the best position to interpret the meaning and purpose of the prohibition.”
Image courtesy of AP/Bullit Marquez