Quezon City Rep. Precious Hipolito-Castelo said her decision to withdraw the bill she filed one year ago authorizing the President to name from his Cabinet a temporary successor in case his four constitutional successors are unable to assume the presidency, was in respect of the Constitution.
Castelo said she withdrew her bill also to erase any wrong impression that she is for ignoring or scrapping the constitutional line of succession to the presidency.
“I am for respecting that provision of the Constitution and the line of succession to the highest office.”
“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.
In a letter to House Secretary General Jose Luis Montales, Castelo said: “I write to respectfully request for the withdrawal and permanent archiving of House Bill No. 4062, which was filed on Aug. 20, 2019. Please take note that the said bill has not been acted upon by the Committee on Constitutional Amendments since the date of its filing.”
The proposed law is modeled after a similar practice in the United States.
The bill is titled “An Act giving the President the power to delegate or designate a successor in the unlikely event that the President, Vice President, Senate president, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives die or become incapacitated to fill in the role of the President.”
The proposed law is modeled after a similar practice in the United States, Castelo said.