{"id":143529,"date":"2018-01-03T04:51:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T09:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=143529"},"modified":"2018-01-03T04:51:14","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T09:51:14","slug":"2019-elections-pushes-through-unless-constitution-is-amended-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/03\/2019-elections-pushes-through-unless-constitution-is-amended-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 elections pushes through unless Constitution is amended \u2014 Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_134564\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-134564\" style=\"width: 1350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Harry-Roque-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-134564\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Harry-Roque-1.jpg\" alt=\"FILE: Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that President Rodrigo Duterte only depends on the Constitution on matters like this. (PCOO PHOTO)\" width=\"1350\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Harry-Roque-1.jpg 1350w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Harry-Roque-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Harry-Roque-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Harry-Roque-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1350px) 100vw, 1350px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-134564\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE: Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque (PCOO PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Malaca\u00f1ang clarifies on Wednesday that there will be no cancellation of 2019 midterm elections unless the 1987 Constitution is amended ahead of the schedule.<\/p>\n<p>During a Palace briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that President Rodrigo Duterte only depends on the Constitution on matters like this.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe President always looks to the Constitution as his guiding document. The Constitution sets the date for the next elections in 2019,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unless the Constitution is amended, which includes being ratified by the people prior to the date set in the Constitution, elections will have to push through,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Constitution, there are 12 senators to be elected in May 2019 since the terms of 12 incumbent senators will end that year.<\/p>\n<p>The Palace official\u2019s statement comes after House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, on Wednesday morning, said there is a possibility that the 2019 elections will be called off if the Philippines successfully transitions into a federal form of government.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview on ANC\u2019s <em>Headstart<\/em>, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said convening Congress into a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) that would work on the amendment of the Constitution and ultimately, the shift to federalism, would be the House of Representatives\u2019 2018 top priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, however, said that the no-election is not an \u201ceither-or\u201d situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is not an either-or situation. We can shift to federalism and allow all scheduled elections under the existing Constitution to go on and be held,\u201d Pimentel said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore we can operate under a new Constitution, the provisions of the existing Constitution must be followed. Hence, if there are scheduled elections under the existing Constitution, then this must be followed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malaca\u00f1ang clarifies on Wednesday that there will be no cancellation of 2019 midterm elections unless the 1987 Constitution is amended &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":134564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[16273,41566,31449],"class_list":["post-143529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-1987-constitution","tag-2019-midterm-elections","tag-presidential-spokesperson-harry-roque","mauthors-joanna-belle-deala","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143529","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=143529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}