Constitution allows PRRD to seek VP post: Guevarra

MANILA – Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Friday there is no legal hindrance in the Constitution that will prevent President Rodrigo Duterte from running as vice president next year.

Guevarra said the Constitutional prohibition is reelection to the same office.

“From a strictly legal point of view, the Constitution does not prohibit an incumbent elected president from running for vice president in a subsequent election,” he told reporters.

Article VII, Section 4 of the Constitution states that “no person who has succeeded as President and has served as such for more than four years shall be qualified for election to the same office at any time”.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who has expressed plans of running again for higher office in a ticket that could possibly include Senate President Vicente Sotto III, conceded that people’s perception of how the Duterte administration performed will determine the results.

“The decision still lies with the people, particularly the electorate who will choose the next leaders of this country. It can be simplified in a choice between more of the same or change,” Lacson said in a statement.

“If the choice is change, we can simply reject the status quo. If we are happy with what we have become for the last five years, then continuity should be a better option,” he added.