Malacanang said on Thursday that there was no sense on insisting that President Rodrigo Duterte would want to stay in power under the federal government.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte would not ask the 22-man consultative committee to change the Transitory Provision of the draft new constitution if he would still want to remain in power.

The Concom altered the provision that instead of Duterte being the transition leader, the latter should be elected.

"It won't happen (that the President would stay longer in power), he asked that the position of a transition leader be elected and now (they are accusing him) he would run again to be a transition leader. It will not simply make sense," he said in a press briefing.

Some quarters have raised concern over the government's shift to federalism, especially after House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez's proposal to postpone the elections next year so that the government and the people could focus on Charter change.

Roque said Duterte denied having a hand on the no election scenario that Alvarez has been pushing for.

"I will quote the President, 'I will not have any hand in that.' He won't really agree to No-El just for Charter change," he said.

He said the President believes in democracy and in the election.

Duterte wants to hold simultaneously the referendum for the possible new constitution during the 2019 polls, he added.

During his third State of the Nation Address on July 23, Duterte is expected to ask Congress to prioritize the move to change the 1987 Constitution that will pave the way for the shift to federalism from a unilateral form of government. Celerina Monte/DMS