Expelling VP from line of progression a ‘preemptive power snatch’ — De Lima

Booting the Vice President from the line of succession as drafted in Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s proposed federal Charter was

“nothing but a preemptive power grab” and a “sneaky political move” by the House leader and her allies, detained opposition Senator Leila de Lima said Thursday.

“Arroyo’s proposed Charter might as well have abolished the Office of the Vice President, as if merely removing VP Leni Robredo from the line of

succession would hide Arroyo’s selfish motivation in pushing for VP Leni’s virtual ouster from office,” De Lima said in a statement.

“It is nothing but a preemptive power grab,” she added.

De Lima slammed the alleged attempt to endorse Arroyos’ draft federal Charter to the House plenary without

the knowledge of other lawmakers and the public.

“Arroyo’s and her House allies’ push for Charter change is rather a sneaky political move amidst speculations on Duterte’s deteriorating health.

Reportedly, the House resolution adopting Arroyo’s Charter change proposal was endorsed to the plenary without

any public hearings or debates at the committee level,” she noted.

De Lima backed Robredo’s pronouncements that such proposal originating from the House of Representatives

would effectively strip the mandate of a Vice President.

“Its most questionable and shameless feature is the removal of the Vice President from the line of succession to the presidency. Strangely,

nobody bothered to look up the very nature of what a Vice President is supposed to be, i.e., to succeed the

President and take over his office in case anything happens to him,” she said.

President and take over his office

Under Article 17 Section 4 of the proposed Charter recently filed by Arroyo and her allies,

“the incumbent Senate President shall act as President” during the transition to federalism

or “until a President shall have been chosen and qualified.”

Be that as it may, Robredo on Wednesday upbraided the proposition, saying it is an edgy move to unseat her.

On Wednesday evening, the House of Representatives restored Arroyo’s draft government Charter to the council level “with the end

goal to acquaint consummating revisions with the inability to incorporate the VP in the main line of progression which prompted

a few errors,” as motioned by Cebu City first District Rep. Raul del Mar.

De Lima, who has been thinking of her announcements from her confinement cell in Camp Crame, still cautioned that

specific arrangements may  reinsert later on.

“It  hence in excess of a fortuitous event that this element belatedly hau out of Arroyo’s draft Charter when Duterte guarantee

his partners that he is free of growth. In any case, this no certification that it will  re-embedded at later,” the representative noted.

“It  only an inversion of democratization — of changes acquainted in the 1987 Constitution with grow the determination of elective authorities

to incorporate those originating from the grassroots will’s identity ready to truly speak to the general

population more than the settled in political tribes,” she included.