Muntinlupa Mayor and former congressman Ruffy Biazon is proposing to change the law to allow people to vote the country’s president and vice president as a tandem just like in the US.

Biazon floated the idea as the feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte continued to escalate.

The latest issue that exploded was when Duterte revealed in a video that she contracted an assassin to kill Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez.

“May kinausap na ako na tao. Sinabi ko sa kanya, kapag pinatay ako, patayin mo si BBM, si Liza Araneta at si Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke. Nagbilin na ako ma’am. Pag namatay ako, sabi ko, huwag kang tumigil ha hanggang hindi mo mapatay sila. And then he said yes. (I have already talked to someone. I told him, if I am killed, kill BBM, Liza Araneta and Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke. I have already given instruction ma’am. If I die, I told him, don’t stop until you kill them. And then he said yes),” said Duterte.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte (Photos from President Marcos and Office of the Vice President's Facebook accounts)

Muntinlupa Mayor and former congressman Ruffy Biazon (Photo from Muntinlupa PIO)

Marcos and Duterte were running mates under the UniTeam in the May 2022 presidential elections.

Amid the falling out between the two, Biazon said it’s time to amend the law to vote for the president and vice president as a tandem instead of separate positions

“Basically, what that means is that, we can see that the current system, wherein, the president and vice president are voted separately, it usually leads to, like, political friction,” he said.

Biazon said in the past, it happened when the winning president and vice president came from different political parties.

“This time around, it seems that the friction has increased. Sad thing about it is, they started as a tandem,” he said.

But he said the same system of voting the president and vice president separately remains.

“The vice president has his or her own mandate from the people. That is why there is a tendency to stand out on his or her own,” he said.

And for the vice president, he said, the idea is there to aspire to become the president.

“The relationship really becomes political. Perhaps it’s time for us to think if it’s time for the system to do a change to liken it in the United States where they are voted as a tandem. The president with his or her own choice of the vice president wherein he or she is really with him in the administration. Sa atin kasi, nauuso yung humihiwalay ang vice president sa administration,” he said.

Biazon said Duterte’s revelation about hiring an assassin is an offshoot of the political rivalry with the President.

He lamented that the feud between Marcos and Duterte puts the people into “intensified politics.”

“Not good at this time for us. Considering that we are in the period of recovery from the effects of the [Covid-19] pandemic. It’s a new administration timing as we went out of the pandemic, there was a new administration. But so far, these past several months, more on politicking rather than getting our acts together and recovering,” said Biazon.