Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian is asking Congress to consider an enabling legislation mandating Charter change to allow “tandem vote” for presidential and vice presidential candidates in the next national elections.
The senator stressed the need to hold the election for president and vice president patterned after a similar practice in the United States in order to “ensure that the selection of the two highest officials of the country will come from the same political party or affiliation.”
In pressing for a tandem vote option in electing the next president and vice president, Gatchalian said this will effectively avert the top two officials of the land pushing separate development agenda.
In the first place, the senator suggested that it is “much better [for the top two leaders] to be pushing similar platforms in order to maintain solid management of the administration.”
Reminding that the next round of electoral exercise is just around the corner, the senator said this was why he is pursuing the amendment in the 1987 Constitution for future national elections.
“This won’t happen in the forthcoming elections owing to lack of material time. But I would like open this proposal for debates and study by the next leaders of the land,” the senator said in Filipino.
Gatchalian clarified that instead of split voting, “selecting a single ticket would be easier for the voters as a vote for a particular presidential candidate would also mean casting a vote for his or her vice presidential running mate.”
He pointed out that under Section 4, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution, “the President and the Vice President shall be elected by direct vote from the people for a term of six years which shall begin at noon on the 30th day of June next following the day of the election and shall end at noon of the same date six years thereafter.”
The senator added he is studying an option to introduce a piecemeal amendment to the Constitution to pave the way for the election of the two highest government officials as a single ticket.