‘2007 Elections Remain
Uncertain’ - JDV
House Speaker Jose de Venecia says that if charter change pushes through,
the 2007 elections might not.
BY
KARL G. OMBION
Bulatlat
BACOLOD City –
Responding to a question in a press conference here whether there will
still be elections in 2007 or not, House Speaker Jose De Venecia said
“frankly, I do not know,” but quickly added that “it is up for the new
interim parliament to decide.”
De Venecia said that
under the present Philippine Constitution, there is supposed to be
elections in 2007 for members of Congress and local government units.
However, he said that the elections might possibly not push through if the
people’s initiative to change the charter succeeds.
If the constitution
is amended and a plebiscite succeeds in creating a new parliament, and if
that new parliament assumes on September 1 this year, it will be up to the
new leadership to decide whether or not there would be elections in 2007
or in later years, De Venecia said.
The speaker was in
Bacolod as the guest speaker of the three-day 6th Visayas
Philippine Councilors League Convention that ended June 23.
De Venecia also said
that under the existing form of government, the President and
Vice-President will complete their term in 2010, but added that this could
be cut short by the decisions of the new interim parliament. “But they
will still be qualified to run for prime minister,” he added.
The bottom line would
still be to synchronize elections, he said. But again, he clarified, these
are sensitive issues that must be addressed by the new parliament.
Despite these, De
Venecia said that he is certain that preparations for the holding of the
first parliamentary elections and the changing of the Constitution will be
the top priorities of the interim parliament.
De Venecia expressed
confidence that the shift to a parliamentary form of government will be
achieved on time because the people’s initiative signature campaign has
already exceeded the 12 percent minimum requirement set by the
Constitution, and that only seven votes of the members of the House and
the Senate are needed to approve the shift to parliamentary form.
“If I were to decide,
I would still like that whether there is interim parliament or not, we
should still hold elections in May, 2007,” he added. Bulatlat
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