A VP as potential Malacañang successor

Former Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. was against amending the Constitution but if it would be done, he suggested once that it should include the election of the president and the vice president as a tandem. In other words, a vote for president would be automatically counted as a vote for his running mate.

This is the practice in the United States. Americans don’t vote for vice president. Oddly enough, while we copied the American system, we ignored the wisdom of voting for the president and vice president as a tandem. Thus, in 1957 we had a Nacionalista, Carlos P. Garcia, for president, and a Liberal, Diosdado Macapagal for vice president. In 1992, President Fidel V. Ramos and Vice President Erap Estrada belonged to different parties. So did President Erap and Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 1998. The “popularity” of President BS Aquino The Last, I mean The Third, failed to carry his running mate in the 2010 polls.