The 1987 Constitution of the
Philippines sets the term of the lower house of Congress, known as the House of
Representatives and more commonly as just Congress (distinct from the upper
house or Senate), as lasting only three years, with possible consecutive
election of only three terms. This is in synergy with the six-year term of the
President, although according to newly elected Representative of Taguig-Pateros
Alan Peter Cayetano is of the opinion that in this present time, the three-year
term and three-consecutive-term limits have become far too short for the
Representatives to do their jobs. He believes a lengthening of Congressional
terms is overdue.
ABS-CBN News reports that 18th Congress Rep. Alan Peter
Cayetano is looking to extend the term of office for the lower house in the
event that he is appointed Speaker of the House, regardless of arrangement. He
considers the proposal as practical rather than political in light of the
current atmosphere in Congress. Making an example of the term he and other Representatives
elected in the recent midterm elections, Cayetano points out that upon taking
office (2019), they usually have nothing but to spend the first six months
organizing while they wait for their budget in January of next year.
Once they have budget, says
Cayetano, the legislators get only that one year (2020) to do real work because
by the following year (2021) they would have to prepare their machineries for
the start of campaigning in 2022. In his view, 3 years is too short to do
anything effective.
The former Senator and Foreign
Affairs Secretary then explained that although he would like the House to work
on legislation of term extension if he becomes Speaker, he also wants any law
that results to come into effect only on the next elected Congress. Representative
Cayetano has emphasized this point in response to routine Congressional mudslinging
that accuses him of pushing for term extension for his sake. He is also looking
at the timeframe from the point that he might sit as Speaker of the House for
only 15 months in a party-coalition power-sharing arrangement.
“Let me have this,” says
Cayetano. “I [might] only have 15 months anyway. I don’t want to leave a
failure. I want to leave as productive.” He adds that the talk of legislating a
term extension for the lower house might result in a “disruptive” Congress, but
that in doing so they could disrupt the ineffective three-year term status quo.
In Cayetano’s estimates, he would
like Representatives to be elected every four years with no consecutive-term
limits, or 5-year terms with 3-term limits. How this will be achieved, and how
the changes might synergize with the unchanged Presidential and Senatorial terms,
has not been clarified.
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