EDITORIAL - Yes, why not adopt this US standard

A while ago one of our columnists suggested we should adopt one standard in the US election system and incorporate it into our own; package a presidential candidate and his or her running mate into one vote.

This idea has actually been around for a long time. However, it is more and more relevant right now with the unnecessary bickering going on between President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Leni Robredo.

It seemed to have started when Robredo started to make her presence felt during relief efforts for typhoon Ulysses. By then there were already calls questioning where the president was in the disaster-hit areas. There was even a hashtag created for such messages, even as they were unjustified.

Somewhere along the way the president or his allies got the impression that it was Robredo behind and promoting the hashtag, something she has denied.

He said some harsh words, she fired back. Now they are engaged in an exchange that doesn’t really benefit the Filipinos or themselves.

So, yes, why not adopt that system where a vote for a president candidate also means a vote for his or her running mate.

Let’s be honest here, as it stands right now the current administration treats the vice president like she isn’t part of the government. It considers her as an outsider and her office as separate from the administration.

We have seen this in the way the president talks about Robredo. One time he even asked to exclude her from the chain of succession in case something happened to him, and suggested that his running mate during the election, Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, take his place instead, something that goes against the Constitution.

We cannot totally blame the president for his actions; his vice president belongs to another party after all. And he is also wary she will begin to make herself more and more relevant --to the point of trying to undermine him-- heading into the next presidential elections.

What is happening between them isn’t new. This is actually the case when two top officials belong to rival parties. It has happened before with past administrations and will happen again in futures ones unless something is done.

To save ourselves the grief caused by this, why don’t we suggest to our lawmakers to make the necessary changes?

Having both the president and vice president from the same party will not necessarily eliminate the bickering between them, but it can ensure that there will be some degree harmony and that there will be no ugly hostility open for all to see.

More importantly, this will mean the continuation of policy, or at least minimized chaos, in case the vice president has to take over for some reason.

Perhaps our lawmakers can work on this before the next presidential election arrives.