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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Rodriguez lectures Duterte camp on prime minister claim: 'That has no constitutional and legal basis' 

Rodriguez lectures Duterte camp on prime minister claim: 'That has no constitutional and legal basis' 

Published Feb 1, 2024 05:10 am

At A Glance

  • Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez lectured the group of former president Rodrigo Duterte on their own allegation that the purpose of the People's Initiative (PI) was to create the position of a prime minister. 
  • Rodriguez chairs the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments.

FB_IMG_1678582960584.jpgCagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez (Facebook)

The chairman of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments lectured the group of former president Rodrigo Duterte on their own allegation that the purpose of the People’s Initiative (PI) was to create the position of a prime minister.

According to Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, the PI method isn't sufficient for such a huge change in government.

"To the question of the…the statement of President Duterte, former President Duterte, that the PI will lead to some people to become prime minister and there will be a perpetuation of power--That has no constitutional and legal basis," Rodriguez said in a press briefing Wednesday night, Jan. 31.

"Constitutional: [PI] cannot change the form of government or the system of government. We are unitary, we cannot change it to federal through [PI] because revision na yan e (because it's about revision)," said the legal luminary of the lower chamber.

"We cannot also change a bicameral form of government, system is a form ito, a bicameral form of government into a unicameral form because the PI will only be for amendments," he noted.

"Now, we therefore can see that there is no basis in that and also on the law on [PI], clearly amendments lang (it only covers amendments). So it can never happen through this PI, that there can be a change to parliamentary, to have elections for prime minister.

A prime minister or chief of cabinet--according to Wikipedia--is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system

"And so therefore, that is very clear," noted Rodriguez. "It has no legal and constitutional basis to say that this is for, PI is for perpetuation of power of election of prime minister. So that is very clear."

The recent PI sought a constitutional amendment to enable Congress (House and the Senate) to “vote jointly” in future attempts at Charter change (Cha-cha).

Related Tags

People’s Initiative Rufus Rodriguez Rodrigo Duterte
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