A RESOLUTION has been filed at the Senate calling for an inquiry into reports that proponents pushing for a people’s initiative (PI) mode to amend the 1987 Constitution have been paying P100 to registered voters who would sign the petition.
Senate Resolution No. 902 was filed by Sen. Imee Marcos on January 10.
“There is a need to put a stop to these corrupt activities and ensure that any petition for a people’s initiative to amend the Constitution is filed with the full consent and free will of the people,” Marcos said in the resolution, citing news reports quoting Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman’s disclosure that Ako Bicol party-list coordinators have allegedly received an unspecified amount of money to ensure that the initiative would “gain ground.”
The resolution also noted reports that Quezon City residents were purportedly invited to attend a meeting for solo parents and were made to sign a document on the pretext that it was for the distribution of P3,000 financial assistance, but the document turned out to be for a PI petition to amend the Charter.
“There were also reports that P20 million was allegedly offered to each congressional district that could deliver the needed number of signatures that could support the people’s initiative to amend the Constitution,” the resolution said.
“These reported payoffs in the signature campaign for a people’s initiative to amend the Constitution and the blatant manner by which ordinary citizens, particularly those in need of government aid, are being misled and exploited, are unconscionable acts of corruption which are inimical to the very concept of democracy,” it added.
Aside from looking into the supposed signature-for-a-fee Cha-cha drive, Marcos also filed Senate Resolution No. 903 seeking a review of the efficacy of RA 6735, or the enabling law implementing the PI to propose amendments to the Constitution.
“In order to ensure that there is a realistic avenue for the people to propose amendments to the Constitution or to propose national or local legislation, as well as to approve or reject a local or national law or resolution, there is a need to examine the efficacy of RA No. 6735 in providing for a system of initiative and referendum,” she said in SRN 903, which she filed yesterday.
Marcos cited the case of Santiago et al vs. Commission on Elections et al. G.R. No. 127325 promulgated on March 19, 1997, where the Supreme Court (SC) held that RA 6735 “is inadequate to cover the system of initiative” on changes to the Constitution and that it failed to provide sufficient standards for subordinate legislation.
“In the same case, the Supreme Court stated that ‘Comelec should be permanently enjoined from entertaining or taking cognizance of any petition for initiative on amendments to the Constitution until a sufficient law shall have been validly enacted to provide for the implementation of the system’ and declared as unconstitutional Comelec Resolution No. 2300 which prescribed the rules and regulations on the conduct of initiative for amendments to the Constitution,” Marcos said.
She also said that in Lambino and Aumentado vs Comelec, G.R. No. 174153 promulgated on October 25, 2006, the SC refused to revisit its ruling in the Santiago case, saying that the Court “must avoid a ruling involving the constitutionality of a statute if the case before the court can be resolved on some other grounds.”
She noted that after the SC decision in the Lambino case, several bills were filed in the Senate “to cure the insufficiency” of RA 6735, including Senate Bill No. 2245 filed by the late Sen. Miriam Santiago on August 2010 during the 15th Congress, and Senate Bill No. 1784 filed by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III on April 2018 during the 17th Congress.
“While there is no issue on the adequacy of the provisions of RA 6735 pertaining to initiatives or referenda on national statutes, their efficacy in implementing such initiatives or referenda is questionable as shown by the failure of various attempts to use the same to effect changes in national statutes,” she added.
EDSA PWERA
Meanwhile, Rep. Raoul Manuel slammed (PL, ACT), a member of the Makabayan bloc, slammed the “EDSA Pwera” television ad for blaming the 1987 Constitution for the country’s woes.
Manuel said the ad campaign is “a pro-dictatorship and Marcos rehabilitation propaganda video packaged as advocacy.”
“We’ve had five Constitutions but the problems on land ownership, jobs, industries and widespread injustice, graft and corruption and subservience to foreign powers still remain,” he said. “The problem did not begin in EDSA or (was) caused by one document. The economic crisis before the EDSA People Power was already tremendous. We were mired in debt then until now. The root causes of rebellion have not been addressed.”
He added: “In reality, it (TV ad) only pushes for a pro-oligarch agenda: 100 percent foreign ownership ng assets, term extensions, and other self-serving revisions.”
Manuel said there are many other meaningful reforms that can be undertaken without amending the Constitution such as pursuing just and lasting peace with the CPP-CPA-NDF for national development.
TECHNICAL MALVERSATION
Marcos, in an interview with radio dzBB, warned that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) may be charged with technical malversation if uses its P12 billion additional budget to fund moves to amend the Constitution.
She said that during the budget season, the poll body requested additional funding for expenses on personnel and building payments but did not mention any spending for any plebiscite.
“Hindi naman ‘yatang puwedeng palitan ang purpose. Ang pagkakaintindi ko, technical malversation kapag binago mo ang purpose (It [Comelec] is not allowed to change the purpose of the spending plan, and to my understanding that is technical malversation if you do so),” she said.
Lagman has insinuated that the P12 billion additional funding given to the Comelec during the bicameral discussion in the 2024 General Appropriations Act would be used to fund the House of Representatives’ Charter change initiatives.
Comelec chairman George Garcia has denied Lagman’’s allegation, saying that when the additional budget was allocated to the poll body, “there is no issue on the people’s initiative yet.”
“It was given because we were asking them (Congress) to return the P17 billion that were taken away (from the Comelec’s budget),” Garcia said.
Marcos said the bicameral conference committee on the 2024 national budget is to be blamed for the unseen details or what will be the final composition of the spending plan.
“Ang problema kasi ang bicameral meetings naming, nagiging photo op lang. Hindi nababasa nang todo-todo doon sa micro bicam na sila-sila lang ang nag-uusap. Yan ang masaklap, nagkaka-onsehan. Nakaka-nerbiyos na ito (The problem in the bicameral meetings is that it only becomes a photo opportunity. The details of the spending plan are not properly read as [members of the] micro bicam are the only ones talking),” she said.
DSWD AID
Social welfare Secretary Rex Gachalian said social services and aid extended by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) are solely for the indigent population and those in crisis situations.
Gatchalian made the statement amid reports that DSWD’s social programs, such as the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis (AICS) and the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), are allegedly being used as incentive in exchange for registered voters to support the PI effort to push for Charter change.
He said that as the government’s frontline social protection agency, DSWD continues to provide all kinds of assistance to the poor and vulnerable within the bounds set by existing rules and guidelines.
“Rain or shine, our hardworking social workers are always ready to render assistance to those in need. The only consideration for the distribution of aid for the indigent and those in crisis situations is their current circumstance as assessed by our social workers in the DSWD Central Office, satellite offices and the various field offices,” he stressed.
Some lawmakers had claimed that social services programs of some government agencies are supposedly being used as incentives to convince the people to support Cha-cha moves.
Apart from promises of receiving cash aid under the DSWD’s AICS program or being included in the 4Ps programs, signatories to the PI are purportedly being promised aid under the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program of the Department of Health and the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced workers (TUPAD) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in exchange for their signature to support the PI petition.
REJECT DRIVE
Taytay (Palawan) Apostolic Vicar Bishop Broderick Pabillo yesterday urged the faithful to reject the signature drive as he expressed strong opposition to the ongoing Cha-cha campaign via a people’s initiative.
In a short statement, Pabillo urged the clergy of the Apostolic Vicariate of Taytay to discourage their respective flocks to reject efforts to gather signatures that are allegedly made as part of the PI.
“There is an effort to change the Constitution through people’s initiative, wherein people are asked to sign a petition for the creation of a constitutional assembly to be composed of the houses of Congress voting as a whole,” said Pabillo.
“This may be used to hastily call barangay assemblies. Ask your people not to sign,” he said, insisting that such efforts must be rejected as it is not an actual initiative by the people.
“This is not an initiative from the people but rather by several politicians,” said Pabillo. — With Wendell Vigilia, Jocelyn Montemayor and Gerard Naval
