Vice President Jejomar Binay prefers a shorter term for Philippine presidents, from the current six years to four years, his spokesmen said on Friday.
And after the four-year term expires, the elected president should still be allowed to seek re-election, Joey Salgado, the head of the Office of the Vice President Media Affairs, said in a statement.
At present, the Constitution provides that the President is not eligible for reelection after a six-year term.
“Vice President Jejomar C. Binay has gone on record as preferring a shorter term for the President. He is proposing a four-year term, instead of the current six years, with re-election for another four years,” Salgado said.
“For the Vice President, six years is too long for a bad president and too short for a good one,” he said.
“Ang taumbayan ang pinaparusahan kung anim na taon silang maghihintay para matapos ang termino ng isang palpak at manhid na pamunuan. Dapat may pagkakataon ang taumbayan na magpahayag ng kanilang damdamin sa pamamagitan ng kanilang mga boto matapos ang apat na taon kung gusto nilang umalis o magpatuloy ang isang presidente,” Salgado added.
(The people are the ones being punished if they have to wait for six years to finish the term of an inefficient and insensitive administration. The public should be given a chance to express their sentiments by allowing them to vote after four years whether or not they want a president to continue)
Binay earlier said that if the Constitution will be amended, he would propose that the limits on the terms of the country’s elected officials should be lifted.
“Itong term na ito ’di talaga ako naniniwala d’yan. Kailangan one to sawa ’yan, hangga’t gusto ng tao. Kaya kung meron amendments sa Constitution, ipapaalis ko yung term limitation. Hangga’t maaari, iboto nang iboto,” he told local officials in Bacolod City Thursday.
READ: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/705772/binay-seeks-lifting-of-term-limitations-one-to-sawa
Salgado explained that the Vice President’s statement on the terms of local officials was grounded on his experience as mayor.
“As long as the people elect their leaders in an honest, free and credible election, they should not be restricted as to their choices,” he said.
Mon Ilagan, the spokesman of Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), echoed Salgado’s statement.
“The Vice President has always believed, based on his experience as a local executive, that local officials should be allowed to seek re-election and be re-elected into office as long as the people favor them,” Ilagan said in another statement.
“This will end the existing situation where relatives substitute for an incumbent to circumvent term limits. A good performer should be allowed to continue working as long as the people want him or her to serve. What is important is the local officials are voted into office in elections that are clean, honest and credible. This also ensures continuity of programs which will benefit the locality in the long term,” Ilagan added.
But while the Vice President spoke about the term limits of elected officials, his spokesmen said amending the economic provisions of the Constitution remained his priority.
Salgado said it has always been the Vice President’s position that economic provisions should be given utmost priority.
“Certain restrictive provisions hinder the entry of foreign investments which would in turn generate jobs and address the prevailing problems of hunger and poverty especially in the rural areas,” he said.
Ilagan said Binay’s visits to the provinces where economies are mainly agricultural and where unemployment is prevalent “have convinced him that this should be a priority for his administration.” AU