{"id":222106,"date":"2019-07-08T22:01:32","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T02:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=222106"},"modified":"2019-07-08T22:01:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T02:01:32","slug":"duterte-federal-or-not-we-have-to-change-the-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/08\/duterte-federal-or-not-we-have-to-change-the-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte: Federal or not, we have to change the Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_222108\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-222108\" style=\"width: 1350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/AF2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-222108\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/AF2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1350\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/AF2.jpg 1350w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/AF2-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1350px) 100vw, 1350px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-222108\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Rodrigo Roa Duterte answers queries from the members of the media on the sidelines of the mass oath taking of newly appointed government officials at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on July 8, 2019. With the President are Presidential Chief Legal Counsel and Spokesperson Salvador Panelo and Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar. ALFRED FRIAS\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0&#8212; President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday night said there is a need to change the Constitution, even if it is a shift into a federal system of government or not.<\/p>\n<p>Duterte made this remark after announcing that he will be endorsing Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco as next speakers of the House of Representatives under a term-sharing agreement.<\/p>\n<p>He said Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, who has also vied for the House speaker post, would be the next Majority Leader in the lower chamber.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to change the Constitution. Whether federal or not,\u201d Duterte said during the oath-taking of newly-appointed officials in Malaca\u00f1an Palace.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSabi ko doon sa tatlo kinausap ko<\/em>\u00a0(I told the three I spoke to) &#8212;\u00a0<em>si<\/em>\u00a0speaker and that is Cayetano. Velasco, he will be assuming\u00a0<em>sa<\/em>\u00a0term-sharing\u2026<em>tapos si<\/em>\u00a0majority floor leader,\u00a0<em>sabi ko<\/em>\u00a0(I said), \u2018If you want to change the Constitution, do it now.\u00a0<em>Nandiyan pa ako<\/em>\u00a0(While I\u2019m here),&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Duterte earlier said he will no longer insist on pushing for federalism but would still prefer to make \u201cchanges\u201d in the country\u2019s charter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you do not want federalism, fine. But change the Constitution, that would really change this nation,\u201d Duterte said in his speech last June 26.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said there was still hope for federalism since Duterte still had three years left before the end of his term.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cPalagay ko &#8216;di mawawala \u2018yan. May tatlong taon pa naman tayo<\/em>\u00a0(I think the effort to push for federalism won\u2019t just go away. We have three years left),\u201d Panelo said in a radio interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is always the light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d he added.<em><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u00a0&#8212; President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday night said there is a need to change the Constitution, even if it &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":222108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222106","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=222106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222109,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222106\/revisions\/222109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}