Senators in the majority bloc were scheduled to meet on Sunday night to discuss President Duterte’s proposal to declare all barangay positions vacant and allow him to appoint their replacements as part of the campaign to weed out illegal drugs in communities.
But Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said he was “almost sure” the barangay elections would happen in October and that senators would “shoot down” the President’s proposal.
Trillanes said the President’s proposal was unconstitutional and even an impeachable offense, arguing that Mr. Duterte could appoint government officials if the 1987 Constitution was amended or if there was a revolutionary government.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said on Sunday that the meeting of administration senators was aimed at exploring how to go about the President’s proposal.
“The President told me to study all options possible,” Sotto told the Inquirer.
But in a phone interview, Trillanes said he believed the senators “would not buy (the proposal to postpone barangay polls) now that the (Palace) declared its intention to appoint officials after the postponement.”
Critical for midterm polls
“It’s a different thing that you have holdover (barangay officials and appointing them), especially with the upcoming midterm elections in 2019. That would be critical,” he said.
Trillanes noted that the country was a republican democracy in which officials in government like barangay captains needed to be elected.
The President’s proposal for him to appoint barangay officials was nowhere provided in the Constitution and nowhere in the Local Government Code, the senator said.
“That’s another culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust,” he added.
Trillanes said the proposal would be possible if the Constitution was amended.
Likewise, this can be done in a revolutionary government like when President Corazon Aquino appointed officials in 1986 shortly after the Marcos regime was ousted.
That was why Trillanes said the proposal would “not reach first base and would be shot down.”