Palace insists Duterte not interested in term extension

Malacañang on Friday insisted that President Rodrigo Duterte has no plans to stay in power beyond 2022 even if the draft federal constitution envisioned by his administration does not prohibit him from seeking re-election.

“He has said what he said: not a second longer,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a message to reporters.

Duterte has repeatedly said that he would quit his post if the country has shifted to a federal government by 2020, insisting that the unitary system of government has failed the people by keeping resources and power centralized.

However, a member of the the body tasked by Duterte to draft the proposed federal charter said incumbent officials, including Duterte, can run under the new constitution.

"All elected officials will have four years, one re-election, so a total of eight years, from the president all the way down to the mayors," Julio Teehankee, chairman of the consultative committee’s sub-committee on political reforms, said in a television interview on Wednesday.

“It's a like a reboot, a reset."

The body is expected to submit the draft charter to Duterte on July 9.

Roque earlier said Duterte, as chairman of ruling PDP-Laban party, will transmit copies of the proposed charter to Congress which will convene into a Constituent Assembly to study and come up with a final draft.

"And he will encourage his party mates to study it very closely and if possible to pattern the proposed revisions after what the commission has recommended. But ultimately of course it is the members of Congress who will approve whether or not they will adopt the proposed revisions," Roque said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Roque expressed confidence that the draft charter "would be very persuasive" to Duterte's party mates in the House.

"We are hoping to be equally persuasive in the Senate," he said. — RSJ, GMA News