DILG gathers 500K signatures in support of 'surgical amendments' to Constitution

The administration has gathered over 500,000 signatures in support of the "surgical amendments" to the Philippine Constitution, including relaxing economic provisions, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Wednesday.

According to DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, a total of 555,610 signatures were gathered during roadshows conducted prior to the lockdowns imposed in March 2020 to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) estimates the country's population at 109.947 million as of 2020.

"On the basis of these public roadshows that we have done in majority of the provinces in the country, we were able to secure more than half a million signatures from Filipinos nationwide. This was done in a very transparent manner and we conducted all of these roadshows and we can verify the signatures if need be," he said during a Congressional hearing.

"If not for the pandemic, I think we would have reached more than a million signatures because the pandemic started on March. Our last roadshow was on February," he added.

The proposed amendments cover changes to several articles of the Philippine Constitution -- Article II on the Declaration of Principles and State Policies; Article XIV on Education, Science and Technology, Arts, Culture, and Sports; and Article XVI on General Provisions.

Malaya said the proposed changes are backed by 23 local governments, and 1,489 members of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines who support "surgical amendments to the Constitution including the lifting of the restrictive economic provisions." -MDM, GMA News