Duterte to next president: Push charter change, abolish party-list system

Outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte recommended that the next administration amend the Constitution and abolish the party-list system.

In his Talk to the People, aired on Thursday, Duterte said that the next president should start the Charter change (Cha-cha) immediately so that people will not suspect that the purpose of what they are doing is to extend the term.

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“Kung sino ang mag-presidente ngayon na papasok, it could be as good as any other time to initiate whether to convert Congress into a constituent body or magtawag ng [call for] constitutional convention but it is very expensive to do,” Duterte, who would step down by the end of June, said.

(Whoever the president is now coming in, it could be as good as any other time to initiate whether to convert Congress into a constituent body or call a [call for] constitutional convention, but it is costly to do.)

Under his administration, Duterte attempted to push for the change of the system of government to a federal system from the current presidential system.

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He said the purpose of such a change is to balance the country’s power and wealth in all regions.

Duterte to next president: Push charter change, abolish party-list system

Meanwhile, Duterte also said that the party-list system should be abolished because it has been abused by the “left,” and can be used to fight the government.

“Although there are a very few, but still they participate in the government that they wish to destroy. ‘Yan ang nakakatawa diyan. Pumapasok sila sa gobyerno, they participate in the governance process, and yet what they really want is to destroy that government at palitan nila ng kanila,” he explained.

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(Although there are very few, they still participate in the government that they wish to destroy. That’s the funny thing there. They enter the government and participate in the governance process, yet they want to destroy that government and replace them with theirs.

In a statement in March, Duterte referred to the alleged “legal fronts” of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as the Kabataan, Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, ACT Teachers, and Gabriela groups.

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