Comelec receives signatures for people's initiative from 400 cities, municipalities

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it has received from at least 400 municipalities and cities 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 chairperson George Garcia told reporters.

“Our election officers are checking page by page to make sure that the tally on the number of signatures affixed is correct, so they are able to ensure that they issue the correct certification [on the number of signatures. Kindly give us until Friday to know how many cities and municipalities have submitted signature pages so far,” he added.

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."

Garcia said the Comelec main office is still sorting out which legislative districts these municipalities and cities belong to.

Once the number of required signatures are met, proponents of the said people’s initiative will have to file their petition to amend the Constitution before the poll body where it will undergo further scrutiny and verification of signatures, among others.

“We have received signature pages from Cordillera Administrative Region to the Bangsamoro Region,” Garcia said.

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. —LDF, GMA Integrated News