MANILA – Quezon City Representative Precious Hipolito Castelo has withdrawn her House of Representatives measure that will grant the President the power to designate his or her successor from the Cabinet.
Castelo has respectfully requested to House Secretary-General Jose Luis Montales for the withdrawal and permanent archiving of House Bill 4062, or the proposed “Presidential Succession Act” after it drew flak from social media.
According to Castelo, she is withdrawing her bill to erase the impression that she was ignoring the line of succession to the presidency, which includes the Vice President, the Senate President, and the House Speaker.
“That is not so, far from it. The bill does not remove the line of succession. I am for respecting that provision of the Constitution and the line of succession to the highest office,” she said.
Under Castelo’s measure, whose screenshots went viral online over the weekend, the President can assign a designated survivor in case the chief executive and the three constitutional successors are unable to fill the position.
It added, in case there is a gathering where the President, Vice President, Senate President, and House Speaker are all present, the chief executive is allowed to delegate a successor from among his Cabinet officials who will take over the presidency in the event that the President and his successor dies or becomes incapacitated to do so
The “delegated successor” will be kept in a secure and undisclosed location during the gathering.
“The appointment of the delegated successor shall be pro hac vice and shall be limited to the circumstances under which it is made. The appointment shall be of no effect in case the President and/or any of his Constitutional successor survive the occasion or gathering,” the scrapped bill stated./PN
