ELECTIONS chairman George Garcia yesterday said some 400 city and municipal Offices of Election Officers (OEOs) across the country have already received signatures of registered voters supposedly in support of the people’s initiative (PI) mode to amend provisions of the 1987 Constitution being pushed by the House of Representatives.
In an interview, Garcia said local proponents of the PI submitted the signature pages.
“Based on the reports coming from the field, our local offices have started to receive signature pages… These signature pages used the prescribed form provided in our (Comelec) Resolution,” said Garcia, adding: “The reports we have received are almost nationwide. From Cordillera to Bangsamoro, local Comelec offices have been getting these signature pages.”
He said the 400 OEOs does not include those that attempted to submit signature pages but were filed in the wrong Comelec office.
“We are still trying to determine how many legislative districts cover these 400 cities and municipalities,” he said.
There are 1,634 cities and municipalities in the Philippines. On the other hand, there are 253 congressional districts nationwide.
Earlier, reports came out that signature gathering activities to gather enough number to support the PI mode to amend the Charter have begun in different localities.
Under the 1987 Constitution, Charter change may be proposed by the people through an initiative, or upon a petition of at least 12 percent of the total number of registered voters in the country, with every legislative district represented by at least 3 percent of its registered voters.
Despite the high number of signature pages submitted, Garcia said the Comelec still cannot take any action on the signature pages because PI proponents have not yet filed any petition before the poll body.
“At this point, it is not yet with the Comelec, there is no filing fee paid yet, and no jurisdiction has been established yet. We only gain jurisdiction if a petition is filed, if we charge them with the filing fee, and if we ruled it as being sufficient in form and substance,” explained the poll chief.
For now, he said the local Election Officers (EOs) will only issue a certification containing the official number of signatures submitted.
“Our EOs will just issue a certification to the proponent as well as to our Clerk of Court so that we can compare the numbers later once a petition is filed,” said Garcia.
CHA-CHA MODE
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers yesterday cautioned the House of Representatives against the Senate’s new-found enthusiasm to review the Constitution, saying it could end up killing the Cha-cha initiative because the mode that the upper chamber wants to adopt to carry out the amendments may be shot down by the Supreme Court (SC).
Barbers said he is cold to the Senate’s proposal under Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 because of the legal risks that it would pose to the Cha-cha campaign, which he said, can be averted if the PI mode pushes through.
He urged his colleagues to carefully study the Senate’s proposal in light of the “confusion” that he fears it will create as to which mode of amending the Charter the Senate’s resolution will fall.
“Should we go ahead and consider RBH (No.) 6 and, granting for the sake of argument that it passes, the method used by Congress in passing it may be questioned in the Supreme Court and may, therefore, put to waste all the resources and time spent on it. It is therefore my suggestion to my colleagues to study this well before jumping into the fray. In the meantime, let the people’s initiative continue so we can see and hear the sentiments of our sovereign people,” Barbers said.
The PI mode being pushed by the House seeks to allow congressmen to vote jointly with senators in a constituent assembly (con-ass), while the Senate’s proposed mode seeks a con-ass with the two chambers discussing and voting separately on proposed amendments to the Charter’s economic provisions.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara said on Tuesday he will adopt a “different type” of con-ass to discuss Charter amendments.
Angara, who has been named by Zubiri to head a sub-committee of the Senate Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes to review the Constitution, said that under the con-ass he is planning to convene, lawmakers will not sit as one body in tackling the proposed revisions but will work separately. Under the original con-ass mode, lawmakers would convene into one body to discuss proposed Charter amendments.
Likewise, Angara said the approval of the introduced amendments will require at least two-thirds votes from both the Senate and the House voting separately, unlike in the passing of regular laws which only need majority votes for approval.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri last Monday said President Marcos Jr. has tasked the Senate to spearhead the deliberations on proposals to amend the 1987 Constitution as he believes that the PI mode being pushed by the House was “too divisive.”
Zubiri has already filed RBH No.6, which essentially called for the House and the Senate to convene as a con-ass to introduce the revisions.
Barbers said the tack that the Senate wants to take may eventually be questioned before the SC, especially since nowhere in the Constitution does it say that the amendments can be voted upon by a two-thirds vote done separately by each chamber.
“The crux of this entire brouhaha is the mode of amendment or revision. Section 1 paragraph 1 of Article XVII of the Charter expressly states, (Any amendment to, or revision of, the Constitution may be proposed by a vote of) ‘three-fourths of all members of Congress.’ Where will RBH (No.) 6 fall then? This is precisely the problem that the people’s initiative intends to fix and clarify first. There is no other amendment mentioned in the PI. Once this is clear, only then can Congress proceed with further amendments,” Barbers said.
The second mode allowed by the Constitution is the convening of a constitutional convention (con-con) by a vote of two-thirds of all members of Congress, who, by a simple majority vote, can also call for a plebiscite to let the electorate decide.
The House last year adopted an RBH calling for a con-con, but the proposal was not acted upon by the Senate, which is traditionally against Cha-cha for various reasons, including its possible abolition in favor of a unicameral legislature.
The third mode is through a PI, which can be done upon “a petition of at least twelve per centum of the total number of registered voters, of which every legislative district must be represented by at least three per centum of the registered voters therein.”
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III, taking note of Angara’s statement, said the Senate leadership’s plan to increase number of votes to approve revisions to the Charter to be higher compared to when passing regular bills “is wrong.”
Likewise, Pimentel said the idea of separate Cha-cha discissions is a “short cut” since senators will not have a chance to exchange views with their counterparts at the lower house.
He stressed that the idea of a con-ass is having both chambers of Congress convening as one but voting separately. “We can probably do it online,” he added.
Pimentel said he will also question the planned creation of a sub-committee to handle tackle RBH No. 6, pointing out that there is a mother committee chaired by Sen. Robinhood Padilla.
“Number one, bakit kailangan ng sub-committee yan? Meron naman kaming chairman, ang chairman (Padilla) namin diyan, tinalaga ng majority yan. Alam naman nila na yan ang topic. Ang reason ngayon kailangan abogado. Eh bakit ginawang chairman ang non-lawyer? Dapat ipatuloy yan sa chairman (Number one, why is there a need to create a sub-committee? We have a chairman for that committee, and that chairman was named by the majority. They knew well what that committee is. And now, they are reasoning that the discussions for Cha-cha should be headed by a lawyer. Why did they name a committee chairman who is not a lawyer? They should let the committee chairman lead the discussions on cha-cha),” Pimentel said.
CON-ASS MEMBERS
Pimentel also said the Senate should adopt a resolution that will distinguish “our work as legislators and our work” as con-ass members when the upper chamber starts Cha-cha discussions.
“There must be a clear break from our work as legislators and our work as con-ass [members]. Dapat ma-distinguish ‘yan ng records, hindi lang ma-distinguish namin as participants, dapat ma-distinguish din ng public kung ano ba ang kilos ng mga senador — as lawmakers or as con-ass [members] (There must be a clear break from our work as legislators and our work as con-ass. That should be distinguished in the records, not only to distinguish us as participant, we should be distinguished by the public if we are acting as lawmakers or as con-ass [members]),” said Pimentel, a former Senate president, in a phone interview.
He said the importance of distinguishing senators performing his tasks as lawmaker or members of the con-ass is because there are different sets of rules for each function.
“Parang impeachment, naging court kami, iba ang rules doon, iba ang schedule. Dapat ganoon (Just like in impeachment cases, the Senate was transformed into a court where we have different rules and different schedules. That should be the case),” he added.
Pimentel said the Senate leadership should also come up with rules on how senators will function when they form themselves into a con-ass.
“There must be a clear break na the Senate is not functioning as a Senate, we are now functioning as con-ass. May sariling rules diyan on how we will function as con-ass. Hindi puwedeng parang lawmaking lang ang ginagawa namin (There should be specific rules on how we will function as con-ass because we cannot act as if we are just performing our lawmaking functions),” he said.
Pimentel said he will raise all his concerns when the Senate resumes sessions on Monday.
HOSTAGE?
At the same time, Pimentel said he is baffled why the Senate is leading the administration’s Cha-cha drive.
“Sabi ko na-encounter na natin ito before. Dati hindi naging attractive na proposition, ngayon ang initiative nasa mga senador na. Ano ba ang nangyari? Nasindak kami sa PI? That must be a knee jerk reaction. Relax lang (We have encountered this before. It did not look an attractive proposition. But now the initiative is with the senators? What happened? Were we threatened by the PI [people’s initiative]? That must be a knee-jerk reaction. Just relax),” he said.
He said if the PI has lost steam, it only shows that legislators are behind this, and that they only want to threaten senators to make them agree to a Cha-cha.
He said he was surprised with the Senate leadership’s decision to join the Cha-cha campaign since Zubiri and majority of senators have always been against Charter revisions.
“Alam ko ayaw ng Senate na sumayaw sa Cha-cha. Pero nung tinugtog na ang music ng Cha-cha, pinalakas ang volume ay napasayaw din pala… Medyo hindi dapat ganoon. Para kaming, through our leadership, para kaming na-hostage ng isang situwasyon kaya tuloy o sige, sige na, kung ‘yan ang gusto ninyo, sayawin na rin namin (I thought that the Senate does not want to dance to the beat of Cha-cha. But when the Cha-cha music was played, the volume was upped, we decided to dance to the music anyway. That should not be the case. We seem, through our leadership, to be hostages to the situation),” he said.
TERM EXTENSION
Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) warned that term extension could still be the ulterior motive of some politicians in relentlessly pushing for constitutional amendments.
“Kaya itigil na ang Cha-cha lalo pa at mukhang ginagawang rason lang ang economic provisions para ibukas ito at kapag nakabukas na ay term extension na ang tututukan (That’s why Cha-cha must be stopped since it appears that the economic provisions is just being just used to open the Constitution and once it is done, term extension will be the focus),” Castro said.
Castro said the issue is not whether PI should be junked and let the Senate’s con-ass proposal continue or that both modes should be pursued “but why push for Charter change at all when it will not solve the basic problems of Philippine society not even if it is limited to the economy?”
“Supposedly the primary reason of those pushing for charter change is to further liberalize the Philippine economy so that more foreign direct investments can come in. They are pushing for 100 percent foreign ownership of land, media, schools and more but is this argument based on facts?” she said.
The militant lawmaker noted Based on the study of IBON Foundation, the Philippines has steadily opened up to foreign investment since the Marcos dictatorship started opening it up in the 1970s.
She said the amount of foreign investment in the country is “unprecedented,” noting that the FDI inward stock that was just US$1.3 billion (equivalent to 3.5 percent of GDP in 1980) is already at US$113.7 billion, which is equivalent to 28.9 percent of GDP last year.
Castro said the Philippines has more foreign investment today than South Korea, Taiwan or China did in their respective periods of economic take-off, “pretty much confirming that large amounts of foreign investment is neither necessary nor sufficient for development.”
“It is clear that entry of FDI is not the key for our economy to take off. It may help but as history demonstrated it cannot be relied upon. What we need is nationalist industrialization coupled with genuine agrarian reform. The trend now for many countries is to become protectionists so that they can use their own resources and not be dependent on other countries,” she said.
COMELEC BUDGET
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) yesterday reiterated the additional P12 billion allocated by Congress for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) this year is not solely intended for the proposed Cha-cha.
“An additional P12 billion was allocated by Congress to the Comelec. This is lodged under the regular operations line item of the agency. It is not for the purpose of Charter change but may be used for various activities of the Comelec, such as the preparation of national and local elections, overseas absentee voting, continuing registration, recall, special elections, referenda, and other initiatives. It is not intended specifically or solely to fund the proposed Charter change,” budget secretary Amenah Pangandaman said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.
“It is the bicam committee — the Senate and the House — that added the amount upon the request of Comelec. They have the discretion to use the said amount for a plebiscite if the government decides to pursue any change, or if the people’s initiative will push through,” she added.
Pangandaman said the DBM respects and upholds the fiscal autonomy granted by the Constitution to the Comelec. “The Constitution grants fiscal autonomy to the Comelec and declares that its approved annual appropriations shall be automatically and regularly released,” she said.
NO SIGNATURE BUYING
Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said he will oppose the buying of signatures for Charter change in the city.
In a television interview, Magalong, however, said he has not received reports that PI proponents have started gathering signatures the city.
“When it comes to Charter change, especially on the economic provisions, I am really a strong advocate,” said Magalong.
Reports say that PI proponents have been paying P100 to registered voters who would sign the petition for a people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution.
“But the way they are doing it, if true, I am against that,” said Magalong, referring to allegations of signature buying.
“It’s an allegation. To me, it’s an allegation because nothing is happening in Baguio. The allegation is there is money behind it so that is probably something that I don’t approve of,” said Magalong.
Magalong surmised people behind the alleged buying of signatures are hesitating to come to the city.
“They know we’re strong advocates of governance, that’s why they may not do it here. Otherwise, I am going to really expose it. I will be one of those outspoken when it comes to that,” said Magalong.
Pressed if there already an ongoing signature drive in the city, Magalong said: “None here in Baguio. I’ll check with the other areas here in Cordillera (Administrative Region) but for the meantime, there’s none yet here in Baguio.” — With Wendell Vigilia, Raymond Africa, Angela Celis, and Victor Reyes
