Solon says draft federal charter skipping VP in succession line not anti-Robredo

The transitory provision in a House committee's draft federal charter that skips the Vice President in the line of succession to the presidency is not an offense against Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo since she cannot be sure that she would remain in the position, a lawmaker reasoned on Sunday. 

"You cannot say it is anti-Robredo because Robredo cannot claim that she eventually will [be] the vice president in the interim period. That is from June 2019 up to June 2022," chairperson Leyte Representative Vicente Veloso, who chairs the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, said in an interview on Super Radyo dzBB.

The Constitutional Amendments committee had put out the controversial charter.

One of its provisions had stated that "[i]n case a vacancy arises by reason of removal, resignation, permanent incapacity or death of the incumbent President, the incumbent Senate President shall as act as President until a President shall have been chosen and qualified."

Veloso had justified the provision by saying that defeated vice presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos' ongoing electoral protest against Robredo might result in the vice presidency going from Robredo to Marcos.

"Nobody can claim na...napakanipis kasi ng lead by Robredo over Marcos. And hindi mo makita kung sino talaga ang mananalo," Veloso said of the poll protest.

Robredo, along with President Rodrigo Duterte, assumed office on June 30, 2016 for a term that lasts until 2022. She defeated Marcos by a margin of over 260,000 votes.

Veloso earlier said that the provision was based on the one in PDP-Laban's draft charter.

The Robredo camp has slammed the committee's reasoning.

"Since when did a pending election protest be the basis of succession to the highest position of the land?" asked Robredo's lead counsel Romulo Macalintal, who said that skipping the Vice President in the order of succession is illegal.

Robredo herself has called the provision "desperate" and hinted at attempts to unseat her.

“Unang una, naisip ko, parang masyado naman yatang desperado. Lahat na lang iniisip kung paano ako matanggal,” she said last week.

Veloso said that what the committee submitted was just a "raw draft."

"What we submitted...itong Committee on Constitutional Amendments...what we submitted as committee report for discussion, deliberations sa floor or sa plenary is a raw draft," he said.

"Hindi pa naman ito talaga yong sinasabi ko na not cast in stone," he added.

The House of Representatives has since restored Robredo to the line of succession in the draft charter. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA News