Comelec gearing up for Cha-cha plebiscite

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) admitted Sunday it is preparing the rules for the possible conduct of a plebiscite for Charter change, Sun-Star Manila (sunstar.com.ph) reported Sunday evening. Sun-Star's online edition quoted Comelec Commissioner Resurreccion Borra as saying the Comelec en banc is refining a resolution that would permit the conduct of a plebiscite that would later pave the way for proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution. "We are now in the process of reactivating and refining Resolution 2300, which would govern a plebiscite (for people's initiative or PI for Charter change)," Borra said, adding the commission would discuss and come out with refinements of Resolution 2300 soon. The Comelec drafted the resolution when the first petition for a people's initiative by People's Initiative for Reform, Modernization and Action was lodged before the election body in 1997. But this resolution was shelved when the Supreme Court invalidated it. On the other hand, Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. said they can now entertain a PI petition and undertake the plebiscite in time with the coming elections in May 2007. He said that there is already an enabling law, according to the recent Supreme Court decision. Thus, he said that if a new petition is filed for an initiative, "we would accept and study it." "They (Charter change advocates) would now be guided [with the Supreme Court order on] how to put up the signature station, how the signatures will be secured, how the verification will be made, that would now be the precedent [for any petition]," he added. -GMANews.TV