{"id":143402,"date":"2018-01-03T02:36:02","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T07:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=143402"},"modified":"2018-01-03T02:36:02","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T07:36:02","slug":"pimentel-federal-govt-can-extend-rodys-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/03\/pimentel-federal-govt-can-extend-rodys-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Pimentel: Federal gov\u2019t can extend Rody\u2019s term"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A unitary-to-federal form of government shift may extend President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s term, according to Senate President Aquilino \u201cKoko\u201d Pimentel on Wednesday. (Photo<\/a>: Senate President Koko Pimentel\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A unitary-to-federal form of government shift may extend President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s term, according to Senate President Aquilino \u201cKoko\u201d Pimentel on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

There are, however, three things to consider.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can extend the President\u2019s term: One, if really necessary; two, if he is amenable to it; and three, since that extension will be part of the new Constitution, the new Constitution is approved by the people themselves,\u201d the Senator told reporters in a text message.<\/p>\n

According to Pimentel, this all depends on the \u201ctransitory provisions\u201d that will be agreed upon by the Constituent assembly (Con-ass).<\/p>\n

\u201cDepends too on when we approve the new Constitution. If 2019, then the next three years will be the transitory period,\u201d he further said.<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s term of six years will end in 2022.<\/p>\n

The President has been consistent in promoting federalism as the key to address the concerns of citizens better, and to a long-lasting peace with the Moros in Mindanao, since a unitary government, the country\u2019s current form of government, allows most power to be concentrated in the central government. While a federal setup allows local government units more administrative powers such as establishing courts, implementing of business regulations, and the like.<\/p>\n

However, Duterte has mentioned several times that he has no intentions of extending his term. In fact, he has for many times said that he is willing to step down from his presidency.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in an interview with ANC, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said that the government\u2019s number one priority this 2018 is the shift to federalism, which can, in turn, cancel the elections in 2019.<\/p>\n

Alvarez who is the Secretary-General of the ruling party Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) in which Pimentel is the President, and Duterte is the Chairman, also mentioned that federalism is one of the party\u2019s advocacies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A unitary-to-federal form of government shift may extend President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s term, according to Senate President Aquilino \u201cKoko\u201d Pimentel on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":143497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[22409,12230,10126,2444],"class_list":["post-143402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-aquilino-pimentel","tag-pantaleon-alvarez","tag-pdp-laban","tag-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}