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Netflix show inspires ‘designated survivor’ bills in Philippines
- Two lawmakers have filed bills which would allow the president to designate a line of succession if the country’s top leadership is wiped out, as happened in a Netflix series
- But critics say the bills could be part of a plot to allow President Rodrigo Duterte to name his successor, and there are simpler solutions
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Inspired by a television series on Netflix, two Philippine lawmakers have each filed “designated survivor” bills to let the president choose a successor in case a catastrophe wipes out the country’s senior leadership.
Currently, the Philippine constitution sets out a line of succession from the president to the vice-president, senate president and then speaker of the house of representatives (the lower house, or Congress), but does not go beyond that.
The separate bills, filed by senator Panfilo Lacson in the upper house and congresswoman Precious Castelo in the lower house, seek to give the president the power to choose a cabinet member to take over in the event of the constitutional successors dying or being incapacitated.
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Lacson told reporters he was influenced by the Netflix political thriller Designated Survivor, in which the lowly housing secretary is catapulted to the presidency of the United States when the rest of the national leadership is wiped out in a bomb attack during the state of the union address.
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According to Barry Gutierrerz, spokesman of vice-president Leni Robredo, there are only a few occasions when the entire Philippine leadership is gathered together and presumably vulnerable to being wiped out. “In practice, possibly the State of the Nation Address (SONA) and during the congressional proclamation of the president and vice-president elect.”
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