{"id":224172,"date":"2019-07-23T23:09:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T03:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=224172"},"modified":"2019-07-23T23:09:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T03:09:21","slug":"palace-clarifies-prrds-remarks-on-cha-cha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/23\/palace-clarifies-prrds-remarks-on-cha-cha\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace clarifies PRRD\u2019s remarks on Cha-cha"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this clarification after Duterte did not mention federalism in his 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday (July 22) but told the media that talks on Cha-cha are \u201cbetter left in conferences that are not allowed to be open to the public\u201d. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte wants lawmakers in both chambers of the Congress to discuss charter change among themselves first before presenting their proposal to the public, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this clarification after Duterte did not mention federalism in his 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday (July 22) but told the media that talks on Cha-cha are \u201cbetter left in conferences that are not allowed to be open to the public\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he\u2019s saying is, \u2018Stop arguing about this, you cannot even agree among yourselves. Just talk within yourselves and then come out with a joint statement on how you will go about amending the charter. If you cannot do it, then let\u2019s have people changing it\u2019,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cO, pag-usapan ninyo na lang muna kasi maki-criticize lang kayo,\u201d \u2018yan ang punto ni Presidente<\/em>\u00a0(Talk about it first because you will be criticized. That\u2019s the point the President wanted to make),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Decide on a method<\/p>\n

According to Panelo, the Congress could not yet agree on a method of amending the Constitution since they previously disagreed on convening a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass).<\/p>\n

Panelo said Congress could still open its doors to a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con).<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi naman sila nagkakasundo sa manner ng pag-amend ng Constitution sa Kongreso eh<\/em>\u00a0(They can\u2019t agree on the manner of amending the Constitution n the Congress).\u00a0Siguro<\/em>\u00a0(Perhaps) it\u2019s better for them to discuss among themselves\u00a0bago sila lumabas<\/em>\u00a0(before they go public),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, emphasized that aside from the proposed federal Constitution drafted by Duterte\u2019s team of experts, the Consultative Committee to Review the 1987 Constitution, there are other proposals that may be considered.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlam mo \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0recommendation,\u00a0hindi lang naman galing kay<\/em>\u00a0Justice Puno\u00a0saka iyong mga miyembro. Maraming<\/em>\u00a0proposed changes\u00a0sa<\/em>Constitution, (You know the recommendation, it’s not only from former Chief Justice Reynato Puno and the members. There are many proposed changes in the Constitution)\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Not giving up<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, rejected claims that Duterte had abandoned his push to shift to a federal system of government since he did not mention it in his SONA.<\/p>\n

\u201cSinabi niya bang ano, suko na siya? Hindi.<\/em>\u00a0(Did he say he was giving up? He didn\u2019t),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng sinabi niya mukhang hindi na makukuha sa kaniyang<\/em>\u00a0term (What he said is that he is aware that it may not be realized during his term),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He explained that the federalism push will still be up to the Congress to prioritize.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung malabo iyong Kongreso, eh malabo rin sa kaniya iyon; kasi sila naman ang magde-decide, hindi naman si Presidente<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 (If Congress is undecided, then it\u2019s a far shot for him; because it is them who should decide, not him, the President) unless we have a different setup of government,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Even if federalism hurdles Congress, Filipinos will still decide in a plebiscite whether to support or reject it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually,\u00a0ang Pilipino pa rin ang magde-decide<\/em>\u00a0(the Filipinos will be the ones to decide),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte wants lawmakers in both chambers of the Congress to discuss charter change among themselves first …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":186250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224172","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\/224172","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224174,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224172\/revisions\/224174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}