ILOILO City – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Region 6 has received, through different city, provincial and municipal election offices, signature sheets petitioning for amendments or revisions to the 1987 Philippine Constitution.
As of Thursday morning, Jan. 18, 37 local government units (LGUs) across the region submitted these signature sheets.
According to Comelec-6 director Atty. Dennis Ausan Ausan, nine were from Aklan, and 14 each from Iloilo and Negros Occidental.
The Comelec-6 has not yet received any signature sheets from the provinces of Antique, Capiz and Guimaras.
Ausan clarified that he was not able to determine whether those were LGU-initiated or by the people themselves.
“Klaruhon naton nga ang gina-file sa aton nga field offices, sa opisina sang aton election officers indi pa ina petition for people’s initiative. Nag-submit lang sila sang signature sheets nga perhaps gamiton nila sa pila ka adlaw kon mag-file sang petition for people’s initiative didto sa aton Comelec en banc sa Manila,” Ausan further explained.
For now, election officers issue certification indicating the total number of signatures from the signature sheets received.
“Naga-issue ang aton election officers sang certification nga sa sina nga adlaw kag ina nga tawo nagpa-receive sang isa ka set of signature sheets containing pila ka signatures; in other words, ginaisip kon pila kag mag-issue sang certification,” Ausan said.
After which, the sheets will be up for safekeeping.
However, if eventually a petition for people’s initiative is filed with the Comelec en banc and the Comelec finds the petition sufficient in form and substance, the Comelec en banc will issue an order for the provincial, city and municipal election officers to validate and verify those signatures contained in the paper that they have received.
Ausan said that based on the law on people’s initiative, the proponent(s) must have at least three percent of the total registered voters in each legislative district and at least 12 percent of the total registered voters nationwide.
If the percentage of registered voters is achieved, Comelec can conduct a plebiscite where the people will be given a venue to vote on whether they agree or disagree with the proposed amendment to the Constitution.
“Amo na sia ang ginasiling naton nga isa ka electoral process kon sa diin ginatawag ang mga tawo or registered voters nga magkadto sa precinct kag magdesisyon sa mga proposal nga ginbutang dira kon bala ang aton people’s initiative kon ang gina-propose nga laye, or sa constitution, nga amendment nagapasugot sila,” explained Ausan.
For his part, Ausan prefers to hold the plebiscite on a separate day and not together with the election day, so that the people can focus on making the decision.
Just this week, Comelec reported receiving from at least 400 municipalities and cities nationwide several pages of signatures for the people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution.
“More or less, there are 400 [municipalities and cities] which have submitted signature pages to local Comelec offices. We can’t release the final number just yet because we are counting, checking the number of signatures. We cannot issue the certification [on the number of signatures] in a day,” Comelec chairman George Garcia told reporters.
In the signature pages, Garcia said the voters were asked if they were in favor of amending Article 17, Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution by allowing all members of Congress to jointly vote on proposed constitutional amendments in a constituent assembly.
The current Article 17 Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution does not explicitly provide whether members of the Senate and the House of Representatives should vote jointly or separately.
Under the 1987 Constitution, amendments can be directly proposed by the people “through initiative upon a petition of at least 12% of the total number of registered voters, of which every legislative district must be represented by at least 3% of the registered voters therein, a mode called people’s initiative.”
House ways and means panel chairperson and Albay lawmaker Joey Salceda earlier told reporters that at least 60 legislative districts already met the required threshold of 3% of registered votes affixing their signature in favor of the proposed constitutional amendment.
Salceda, however, also conceded that the people’s initiative will not be easy since at least 20 districts are opposed to it so far.
Even one legislative district that would not meet the 3% threshold will render the entire people’s initiative null and void, Dr. Julio Teehankee, professor of Political Science and International Studies of De La Salle University, earlier warned.
There are at least 253 legislative districts in the country. (With a report from GMA NEWS Online)/PN
