Drilon: No to Senate President as successor; post just a ‘gift’, temporary

Senate President as successor of the President?

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon rejected the idea on Tuesday, saying the position of the Senate President is just a “gift” that could be changed anytime.

Instead of the Vice President, the draft federal charter in the House of Representatives places the Senate President at the helm of governance in case the President is unable to lead during the transition.

The move was supposedly meant to prevent “instability,” noting the ongoing electoral protest of former Senator Bongbong Marcos against Vice President Leni Robredo.

But Drilon countered this argument, saying the proposal would just create “instability.”

“Precisely, the stability is the well-defined succession to the Office of the President,” he said told reporters.

“You know, the Senate President is subject to election and change at any time by the 23 senators…The Senate President is a gift of the 23 senators.”

“Precisely if they want to achieve stability, the stability is to follow the rule of succession; otherwise there will be instability because the Senate President can be replaced anytime,” he further stressed.

Drilon then vowed to oppose such move not only because there is no time to tackle it but he also found it lacking in merit.

“I cannot support the proposal. Apart from the fact that there is no more time, the proposal itself does not merit my personal support,” he said.

He reiterated that any Charter change move was “dead on arrival” at the Senate.

Congress will go on break on Wednesday and will resume its sessions next month.  /kga