DAVAO CITY – Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimental III confirmed the move to change the form of government to Federal will be this year’s priority of the Senate, saying it is the remaining election promise of President Rodrigo Duterte that has never took off yet.
Pimentel said he made “mental checklist” of the election promises to the people and almost all have been fulfilled by the Duterte administration.
“Panahon na, kasi nagme-mental checklist ako sa ano man yung pinangako sa taumbayan halos nabigay na lahat. Ang pangako namin noon is P20,000 to P25,000 per month exempted na from income tax, nagawa na ng Train (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion) yan. The increase on the pay of uniformed personnel nabigay na. Ano pa ba? All-out war against crime, illegal drugs and corruption nangyayari na. (It’s about time because when I go to the checklist of things we promised during the campaign, most of them were already given. Our promise of income tax exemption for those who earned P25,000 and below was already given under the Train… The increase on the uniformed personnel was also approved and signed already. What else? All-out war against crime and corruption is happening already),” he told Davao reporters in a chanced interview at the Marco Polo Hotel.
As soon as this will be deliberated in the Senate, Pimentel said he will set a timetable for the plebiscite which is slated to be held in May 2019.
This is however contrary to the proposal of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez that the plebiscite will be held in May, this year.
“Siyempre if mag plebiscite na this May, there will be new Constitution. Hence, the elections will be dependent on the new constitution (Of course, if the plebiscite will happen this May, there will be a new Constitution,” he said.
The Senate president clarified that the no election rumor in 2019 is impossible because there is no specific model of Constitution being crafted.
On the side of House of Representatives, PBA Party-list Representative Jericho Nograles said the no election scenario should be understood in context.
“Why context? Because by default there is still an election. It is in our Constitution that there should be an election. So, we need to have that election,” he said.
Nograles said a charter change in which the form of government will change to parliamentary from presidential is the only possibility that the election will not happen
He said now that both leaders of the two legislative chambers agreed to pursue this, all legislators can start to craft a new constitution.
“We are treading into new territory because this is the first time that we are going this far in proposing amendments to the Constitution. I will emphasize proposing amendments – it’s not amendments alone because this will depend on the people,” he said.
Nograles said people can ratify the constitution through a plebiscite that can be included in the mid-term elections next year.
Earlier, House Majority Floorleader Karlo Nograles said the primary mission for the lawmakers in the 17th Congress is to usher in a federalized Philippines in 2018.
The house majority floor leader said over 16 million Filipinos gave their stamp of approval to effort when they elected President Duterte, who has championed federalism since Day One.
Now that Congress is done with the 2018 General Appropriations Act (GAA), TRAIN, Rep. Karlo said lawmakers can now focus during the latter half of the second regular session and beyond on switching from current form of government to federal system. (Armando Fenequito Jr/PNA)
