Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Monday said he is stumped by the seemingly conflicted stance of former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte in moves to amend the Constitution, noting that he based his entire presidential campaign platform on a shift to a parliamentary form of government.
The former president earlier expressed opposition to the people’s initiative to amend the Constitution, even saying that he was satisfied with the country’s charter in its current form.
According to Romualdez, Duterte’s conflicted stance is tantamount to changing his tune about Charter amendments, saying he ran a presidential campaign that pushes for federalism as a new form of government.
“Unang-una, baka nahirapan naman talaga si president Duterte kasi ‘yung plataporma kaya nanalo sya ay federalismo. Hindi lang ‘yang amendment ng economic provisions, ‘yan yung pagbabago nung buong sistema ng government,” Romualdez, the leader of the 310-strong House of Representatives, said. (First of all, maybe [former] President Duterte really struggled because the platform that made him win was federalism. It’s not just the amendment of the economic provisions, it’s the change in the entire government system.)
“Mukhang hindi nya nakayanan eh. Ngayon na may naglulunsad na magandang move for charter amendments, baka nakikita nya na ‘yung hindi n’ya nagawa ay magagawa. Baka mangyari na ngayon kaya sinisiraan nya,” he added. (It looks like he couldn’t handle it. Now that there are genuine efforts to charter amendments, he has realized the efforts are doable when he thought I wasn’t. Maybe he thinks it [Charter change] can happen now and so he is sourgraping.)
The House leader attributed all these statements of Duterte to a “budol-budol” attitude, or saying one thing but meaning totally the opposite.
Romualdez advised Duterte to exercise caution in his statements, as he himself may have much to answer for during his term.