Lawmaker wants longer terms for President, House reps

A lawmaker is seeking to extend the terms of the President, congresspeople, and local officials, as he claimed the current terms are “too short” amid crises, and parts of their terms are spent on reelection-related activities.

In a statement, Pampanga 3rd District Representative Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. said there is a need to amend current provisions of the law which were fixed by framers of the 1987 Constitution following the martial law era.

“A six-year tenure is too short for a good President, especially if he is confronted with a crippling crisis like COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to wreak havoc on our health and economy and whose end is not yet in sight,” he said.

“It may take more than one presidency before the nation can fully recover from this catastrophe,” he added.

Under the Resolution of Both Houses No. 7 filed by Gonzales, the President would have a five-year term with the possibility of a reelection for a total of 10 years.

Under present laws, the President is only allowed a six-year term without the possibility of being reelected.

“On the other hand, if we do not like the way the President is governing, we can vote him out of office a year earlier if his term of office is five years,” said Gonzales.

The lawmaker is also looking to prohibit the President from running for any elective post after he steps down from the country’s highest position.

Gonzales’s proposed measure also seeks to extend the tenure of the Vice President to five years, with the vote for the President equivalent to a vote for the running mate.

“This would strengthen the political party system and ensure that the top two officials of the land are one in leading the nation,” he said.

Should it be passed into law, Gonzales’ proposal would also lead to longer terms for the members of the House of Representatives to five years with one reelection, instead of the current three years with two reelections.

Gonzales—who is running unopposed in his district for his last term—said that the second three-year term of a representative is where the work happens as the first term is a learning curve, while the third term is for reelection-related activities.

“This is true as well with a governor or city or town mayor,” he said in the statement.

The Congress is mandated to make enabling laws to ensure that the spirit of the Constitution is upheld in the country, and at times amend, or change the constitution itself.

“These have been with us for 34 long years. It may now be time to modify them to modify them to strengthen our political system and hasten national and local development,” Gonzales said. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA News