Full Text: Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez At Meet Inquirer Multimedia

Incoming Davao Del Norte Representative Pantaleon Alvarez last June 14 sat down with the Inquirer group for an hour-long interview on his expected victory as Speaker of the House of Representative. He also talked about the other legislative priorities of President Rodrigo Duterte, including the shift to federalism.

Below is the full transcript of the interview:

Juliet Labog-Javellana, Central Desk head: Good morning. Welcome to the 8th edition of Meet Inquirer Multimedia. Once a month, we bring a notable newsmaker to the hot seat to be interviewed by our different platforms, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inquirer.net, Radyo Inquirer, Inquirer Bandera, Inquirer Libre, Cebu Daily News and our social media and mobile networks.

Our forum will be livestreamed at Inquirer.net and broadcast in Radyo Inquirer 990 AM tonight. We are live on Twitter, Facebook, Viber, Line, Kakao, FireChat, WeChat and Telegram, at #MeetInquirer.

Our people have spoken, and in just two weeks, we shall see the inauguration of our new president. We are honored this morning to have our first guest from the Duterte administration. The person who is well on his way to becoming the next Speaker of the House, the fourth highest official of the land. As a key ally of the President, Congressman Alvarez will play a major role in how the Duterte administration will 'metamorphose' from the climate of hope and fear.

Thank you for coming here sir. May you be our lucky charm. We shall have a proper introduction shortly. May I just acknowledge the presence of our board chair Ma'am Marixi Rufino-Prieto, our President and CEO, Ma'am Sandy Prieto-Romualdez, our COO, Mr. Rene Reynoso, our Executive Editor Mr. Joey Nolasco, our Inquirer.net Editor-in-Chief Sir John Nery, and the officers, editors, reporters, photographers and employees of the Inquirer family. At this point, may I request the Chair, MRP to give her welcome remarks.

Marixi Rufino-Prieto, Inquirer President and CEO: Good morning and welcome to Meet Inquirer Multimedia. It is an honor to host incoming Speaker of the House Congressman Pantaleon 'Bebot' Alvarez. The Filipino people have just made history with May 9, 2016 elections. We have a new President-elect, who won a resounding victory at the polls. Today we have one of the architects of the victory as our honored guest. We look forward to a vigorous and illuminating exchange of views and ideas with Speaker Alvarez. Thank you and once again, welcome to the Inquirer.

Javellana: Thank you, Ma'am. And now, I am pleased to turn this over to our distinguished moderator, our editorial consultant, and Inquirer.net Editor in Chief, John Nery, Sir.

John Nery, INQUIRER.net Editor in Chief: Thank you Juliet. And good morning. To our various audiences on the different Inquirer platforms, and to our special guest a warm welcome to Meet Inquirer Multimedia. We have prepared, a short, maybe 2-min. long video introduction of our guest. Let's roll the tape.

video introduction

Nery: Welcome. Strictly speaking, you are Congressman-elect, and will become Congressman on June 30 and Speaker of the House of the 17th Congress on July 25. But we don't wanna be pedantic, so if it's alright with you, we'd like to call you Speaker Alvarez.

Speaker Alvarez, maybe you can first begin with an opening statement.

Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez: 'Bebot' na lang muna siguro. I would be very presumptuous. Anyway, sincerely I would like to thank the owners, the officers, editors and staff of the Philippine Daily Inquirer for giving me this opportunity, perhaps, to honestly answer some important questions in these important times. So let's start the ball rolling.

Nery: Okay, I think we have all been - we are all encourage to ask questions. But first, we want to segue to the next part.

If you will allow me, Speaker, just a word about the format - very, very straightforward. We will have questions from the editors, reporters in the different Inquirer platforms beginning with the Executive Editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and then also, we will field questions narrated by our followers and subscribers on social media. And if we will have more time, we will have questions from the floor. Thank you for giving us until 12:30. So we will have an open forum until 12:30.

Okay the first question is from the Chief Editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Executive Editor Joey Nolasco.

Nolasco: Mr. Speaker, what are the three, top three legislative priorities of the Duterte administration?

Alvarez: Number one would be the federalism; number two, restoring death penalty; and number three, the amendment to the Pangilinan law on Juvenile and Delinquency Law. Because ito 'yung maraming problema eh. We received a lot of complaints from law enforcement authorities tungkol dun sa mga minors na hindi pwedeng i-charge. Tinaasan 'yung age ng 15. Originally, I think, it was 9 'yung sa Revised Penal Code. Inakyat ng 15. So, ang nangyari - I'm not questioning the intent of the law. It's quite noble - but the problem is in the implementation. Nagkaroon tayo ng problema dahil 'yung mga 15 years old, ginagamit ngayon nung mga syndicates for committing crimes. And I think, we have to address that problem.

Nery: Would you like to elaborate on the first two - federalism and the death penalty?

Alvarez: Well, federalism - we have been into this unitary form of government for quite some time. And it was introduced first by the colonizers, like Spain and then followed by the Americans. You'd be surprised why the Americans did not introduce the federal form of government, where in fact, they have this type of government at home. Now, we could only surmise that maybe, a unitary form of government is best if you are a colonizer, because it is easier to control the country. But we have been through it for - since we started as a country, as a nation. But until now, wala hong nangyayari sa atin. So, maybe, it is now time to consider another form of government. Because under a federal set-up, magkakaroon ho ng maraming opportunities doon sa mga probinsya; doon sa mga regions because they will be empowered to control their own economy, natural resources and they'll have the chance to chart their own destinies.

Nery: Speaker Bebot, the unitary form of government is provided for by the Constitution. Are you saying that you are going to work on a constitutional amendment or revision?

Alvarez: If we change the system of government from a unitary to a federal form, I think we really have to revise the Constitution. It is not just amendment; it is revision of the Constitution.

Nery: So, when you say that your first priority - one of your first priorities - is to push federalism, how will Congress be involved here? Are you going to pass a measure that will call for a Constitutional Convention? Are you going to constitute yourself as a Consa? What is the process going forward, Sir?

Alvarez: Well, as we all know, there are actually 3 modes of amending the Constitution. One is Constitutional Convention; another is a Constituent Assembly; and the last one is, People's Initiative. But People's Initiative applies only when you amend certain provisions in the Constitution. But when you revise a Constitution, I think we are left with two options: one is Constitutional Convention, another one is Constituent Assembly.

Constitutional Convention would be very expensive and very long. A Constituent Assembly would be easier, less expensive. But I guess, the president wants a Constitutional Convention para wala hong masabi yung tao na, you know, self-serving yung gusto nating mangyaring constitution para sa kaniya. So maybe we'll go for a Constitutional Convention but still, kailangan hong kunin natin yung consensus ng Kongreso kung anong mode ang gagawin to revise the constitution.

Nery: And - sorry - one last follow-up to your first answer, what about the death penalty? So this was banned in about ten years ago. So you're gonna push for is this part of the requirement to be a member of the new ruling coalition. That they will support the death penalty?

Alvarez: No, it is not, no. But as we all know, the president, when he campaigned, he was very specific on what he wants to do. Number one, it was an advocacy, federalism. And he said he wants to restore death penalty. And third, he wants to amend the Pangilinan Law. Now, on the basis of these three clear platform[s] of the president, he was elected by a majority of the Filipino people. Of course, he wants to do it.

Nery: Thank you. Our next question comes from PDI Reporter DJ Yap.

DJ Yap, reporter: Good morning, sir. Sir, last week, you said that under a federal parliamentary system of government, there's no place for a vice president. So what is the plan for Leni Robredo under the Duterte administration?

Alvarez: No, no, no. I didn't say that. I said under a federal set-up (Yap: There's no vice president?) Of course, kung parliamentary, definitely there is no vice president. Pero kung federalism, federal form of government under a presidential set-up, baka mayroong vice president, just like the United States of America. So depende na yung kung ano ang mapagkakasunduan.

Yap: Sir, could you tell us what the plan is...