{"id":150556,"date":"2018-02-01T18:36:11","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T23:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=150556"},"modified":"2018-02-01T18:36:11","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T23:36:11","slug":"cbcp-fear-of-creeping-dictatorship-far-fetched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/01\/cbcp-fear-of-creeping-dictatorship-far-fetched\/","title":{"rendered":"CBCP fear of \u2018creeping dictatorship\u2019 far-fetched"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_143929\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-143929\" style=\"width: 1350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/joey1-1-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-143929\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/joey1-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"FILE: Harry Roque (PCOO Photo)\" width=\"1350\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/joey1-1-1.jpg 1350w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/joey1-1-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/joey1-1-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/joey1-1-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1350px) 100vw, 1350px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-143929\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE: Harry Roque (PCOO Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong> \u2014 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday dismissed as &#8220;far-fetched&#8221; the Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of the Philippines\u2019 (CBCP) fear of a \u201ccreeping dictatorship\u201d under President Rodrigo Duterte. This was amid his administration\u2019s push to amend the Constitution to establish a federal system of government.<\/p>\n<p>In a press briefing in Baguio City, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque reiterated that Duterte, as an advocate of the rule of law, had been &#8220;clear and equivocal&#8221; when he said that he would follow the Constitution and finish his term at noon of June 30, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe understand the sentiments of the Catholic bishops on their aversion to Charter change and federalism. We, however, assure our bishops that the President has no interest to extend his term nor will he push for no election,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe creeping dictatorship that, the Catholic hierarchy fears, is a far-fetched idea,\u201d Roque stressed.<\/p>\n<p>The Palace spokesperson made the statement after the CBCP issued pastoral guidelines to discern the moral dimension of the present-day moves for Charter change.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the CBCP urged legislators to set aside self-interest and to instead promote the common good.<\/p>\n<p>The bishops called on the faithful to be vigilant and to \u201cpersuade our legislators to do only what is genuinely for the good of all on this issue of Charter change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Duterte has advocated the change to a federal system of government since the campaign and has supported moves by his allies in Congress to amend the Constitution through constituent assembly.<\/p>\n<p>However, Duterte has repeatedly stressed that he \u201cwill not remain a second longer\u201d when his term expires and is even willing to step down earlier if the shift to federalism is realized before his term ends.\u00a0<em><strong>(PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA \u2014 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday dismissed as &#8220;far-fetched&#8221; the Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of the Philippines\u2019 (CBCP) fear of a \u201ccreeping &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":143929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[25703,45534,978,13135],"class_list":["post-150556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-catholic-bishops-conference-of-the-philippines-cbcp","tag-creeping-dictatorship","tag-malacanang","tag-president-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-jose-cielito-reganit","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150556","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=150556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}