By Junex Doronio
MANILA — Short of saying that the term limit of public officials has spawned political dynasties, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has hinted his preference for its lifting in the possible political amendments to the 1987 Constitution even as he stressed that economic reforms should be the priority.
“Let’s be practical. In terms of the term limits, look at what happened. When I was mayor for nine years, hindi na ko makatakbo, so patakbuhin ko ‘yung asawa ko, patakbuhin ko ‘yung anak ko, ako ‘yung magiging vice mayor. So, wala ring nagbago. They are still running the show. We have a term in Ilocos. We call them mayor vice. Because they are the vice mayor but they are running the administration of the town. We have to think about that,” Marcos Jr. said in a 24 Oras interview on Tuesday (January 23), apparently referring to political dynasties.
Ironically, although political dynasties are prohibited in the 1987 Constitution but they still proliferate because both the Senate and the House of Representatives failed to pass an enabling law or deliberately did not craft one.
“But in present day, we can have these discussions later on. But for the present day, my concern are the economic provisions, and I don’t want to confuse the issue any longer. I do not want to jeopardize the success of the amendments to the economic provisions by putting any other issues. Let’s keep the issue clear,” the President stressed.
Marcos Jr. undescored the need for economic reforms to attract more foreign investors to invest in the Philippines.
(el Amigo/MNM)
