MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday defended its move to accept signature sheets for a people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution, even without a formal petition yet.
Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia made the pronouncement in response to an election law expert who told the election body to stop receiving the documents containing the signatures, calling it a “waste of time and paper.”
Garcia explained that Comelec is acting in accordance with Resolution No. 10650.
It also prevents bringing the 6 million or 10 million signatures to the main Comelec office, which he said would be much more costly.
“Imagine if they bring it here, and we do not verify it? We would only need to check sufficiency in form and substance. Once deemed sufficient, we would then have to return the 6 million to various towns. It would be more costly this way,” Garcia told reporters in a chance interview.
“For practicality and administrative reasons, perhaps that’s why they prioritized submitting the documents first. In the first place, when those are submitted, they don’t hold any significance for us yet,” he added.
Garcia said accepting the documents containing the signatures is only part of its ministerial duty, and preliminaries of the process.
He clarified that while there is still no formal petition filed before Comelec, it is not within its jurisdiction to assume that there is indeed a people’s initiative.
“So if something is submitted to us, it becomes our responsibility based on the guidelines. If it’s not in the rules or guidelines, why would we accept additional work”?” said Garcia.
What happens upon filing of a formal petition?
Once a formal petition has been filed, Garcia said the Comelec would then proceed to determine if it has been submitted complete with the required attachments.
Such requirements, he said, include the number of the actual voting population, and the number of signatures required to be collected — at least 3 percent of each of the 254 legislative districts in the country — certified by the Election Records and Statistics Department (ERSD).
Comelec would then verify if the petition is “sufficient in form and substance,” meaning, if it clearly indicates the provision of the Constitution they want to be amended.
“That is what we need to ascertain. Our duty is ministerial because it’s just a checklist; if we find something missing, it will be dismissed,” said Garcia.
Meanwhile, once verified that it has completed the requirements, the Comelec would then proceed to verifying the signatures one by one.
“If a district is found, for example, to have initially provided five percent, but after successive deductions due to invalid signatures, it turns out to be only 2 percent, the petition is dismissed. This is because all 254 districts should have a minimum of 3 percent each,” said Garcia.
Garcia said Comelec has 60 days or two months to complete the verification of signatures.
Meanwhile, Comelec said that under a Supreme Court decision, the proponent of the petition must also convince the poll body that all signatories truly understand the petition they have signed.
“Those signatures are inconsequential until a formal petition is submitted to us. It is also the obligation of the petitioner, the proponent, to convince the Comelec that the signatories genuinely understand the petition,” he added.
Garcia said there is no official timeline when the verification will begin as it depends on when exactly the petition will be filed. (Zacarian Sarao © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
