MAYOR Celso Lobregat favors amending the Constitution but warned that amendments should be done early on the term of President Benigno Aquino III.
Lobregat is reacting to the proposal of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her son, Camarines Sur Representative Diosdado Arroyo, to institute amendments to the 1987 Constitution.
The mayor said among the provisions that should be amended include the automatic election of the vice president, vice governor and vice mayor whose president, governor or mayor were elected by a majority vote.
"A vote for the president, governor or mayor should be a vote for the vice president, vice governor or vice mayor," he said, citing the system being adopted in the United States.
"The vice president is automatically elected with the president and so is true with the vice governor and mayor," he said.
"We should have some kind of teamwork between the two top highest posts," he said, adding the problems when the vice president or vice governor or vice mayor comes from a different party as that of the president, governor or mayor.
Lobregat also said he does not believe in term limits, stressing that people will vote for officials who they think and believe are doing good. He emphasized that the three-year term limit is very short and that four years may be appropriate.
"If an official is not doing things beneficial to the people then for sure that official will not be elected after the first term," he said.
"If you're a new official, you come in July when the budget for that year is already made and the budget for next year has already started and so the only time that the official will be able to come up with his own budget will be on the second to the third year, which will be leading to the next elections," he added. (Bong Garcia)