PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte says he favors the anti-political dynasty provisions as proposed by the consultative committee he created to review the 1987 Constitution with a view to amending it.
“A few principled men want this kind of thing abolished. I am for it,” Duterte said in his speech during the general assembly of the League of the Municipalities of the Philippines in Manila Hotel on Tuesday night.
He made his statement even as Palace ally on Wednesday pushed for a massive information drive on the proposed shift to a federal-presidential system of government to educate the public on its benefits.
Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said local executives could kick off the campaign this summer during the first village assemblies this year, which is usually conducted in the last Saturday of March.
But Duterte expressed doubt whether the Con-Com’s anti-political dynasty recommendations would be adopted by Congress in the proposed federal form of government under the new Constitution.
“The problem is, will it be approved? Because in our country, after a politician finishes his term, he will ask his son or wife [to run],” said Duterte, father of incumbent Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.
Recently, the Con-Com unanimously voted to prohibit the succession of an incumbent official’s relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity.
The body also agreed to limit the number of positions that members of a family could hold to only two”•one national and one regional or local.
The proposed anti-political dynasty provisions will cover barangay positions.
Former Chief Justice and Con-Com chairman Reynato Puno has expressed hope that lawmakers will adopt the anti-political dynasty provisions as a pre-requisite for the shift to federalism.
“Personally, and I have said it, the prohibition against political dynasties is a sine qua non requirement, a condition precedent before we shift to federalism and the rationale for that is self-evident,” Puno told reporters on Tuesday.