Transcript Of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago ’s Interview

On The House Bill Providing For Snap Election

That is unconstitutional. The term of the president is six years unless he or she is impeached. Impeachment is the sole process by which you can remove an elected president during his or her term of office.

If you wish to remove the president during her term of office on another ground, you will be adding to the grounds provided by the constitution; therefore, you are either committing an unconstitutional act by passing that kind of law and surely that will be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Or, you first have to campaign to convert the Congress into a constituent assembly so that it can amend the constitution. But in the form of a law, you cannot change the constitutional provision on removal of a sitting president.