Arroyo for Cha-Cha Commission? ‘Maybe,’ Duterte says

President Rodrigo Duterte and former president, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during a National Security Council meeting in 2016. (PHOTO FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS DIVISION)

NAYPYITAW, Burma — Former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may have been unseated as deputy speaker in the House of Representatives but President Duterte may still have plans for her.

In a media interview on Sunday night here, when asked if he was considering Arroyo to lead the planned executive-ordered commission to help Congress revise the Constitution for a shift to a federal government, Duterte, after a pause, and with a firm nod, answered: “Maybe.”

“Baka ayaw rin niya eh (She might not want that), but maybe,” Duterte said.

Charter change was also eyed during Arroyo’s administration. Arroyo, as President, had formed a consultative commission which recommended a unicameral parliamentary form of government, decentralization of the national government and more powers to local government units. Congress then had also tried, but failed, to convene a constituent assembly.

When asked if he was eyeing Arroyo as a Cabinet member, however, Duterte was quicker to say no.

“I don’t think she will accept it. She cannot be working under a President when she was already a president. That will be quite a tall order for her to do that. But representing the people of the district of her own province would be somehow acceptable to even everybody,” the President said.

For a lawmaker to be a Cabinet member, they would have to resign from their seat in Congress, in accordance with Constitutional restrictions.

In his speech during the meeting with the Filipino community here, Duterte said that if Mindanao, where he came from, was not given “the structure of federalism they are asking for,” “we will never find peace.”

“Accept the fact that before Magellan came in to Leyte many years ago, 100 years ahead, Mindanao was part of the Sri Vijaya empire of the Malay race. Then it was grabbed by the Spaniards, then the Americans,” Duterte said, in a mix of Tagalog and English, “And until now, they [Mindanao] look at us [Malacanang] as the extension of that empire, which is why we remain as a unitary type of government.”

“We are the only ones who have a unitary government now. Everyone else has shifted to a federal set-up. And it has deprived, truthfully also, the people of Mindanao,” the President said.  SFM/rga