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Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos said on
Friday that cast doubts on the timetable set for a new people’s
initiative (PI) to amend the Constitution. A top aide of President
Arroyo also vowed to block the renewed Charter-change drive
allegedly headed by Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno.
Secretary Michael Defensor, the President’s
chief of staff, reiterated warnings that a new Charter-change drive
would hurt Mrs. Arroyo and the country.
Defensor said he would resign last week to start
preparations for his Senate candidacy.
Explaining his decision to delay his
resignation, he told reporters: “As a Cabinet member, as a loyal
member of the Cabinet of the President, I deem it necessary that I
openly speak against the second people’s initiative.”
Defensor also vowed to “stop any effort coming
from Malacañang or any other part of the Cabinet in pushing the
second people’s initiative.”
“If there will be an initiative coming from
the people, genuinely coming from the people, we cannot do anything
about it, but the people will know, the people can see through any
effort,” he warned.
Defensor said Mrs. Arroyo’s position on the
issue of Charter remains, that “this will be pursued at a time
when there is unanimity or at least consensus among our people.”
No time
Even with the poll body’s issuance of
implementing rules for the exercise, there was very little time left
for the Sigaw ng Bayan (SnB) and the Union of Local Authorities of
the Philippines (ULAP), Abalos said.
“It took them five, six months to gather the
signatures,” Abalos told The Manila Times, referring to the first
failed initiative. “But we will cross the bridge when we get
there.”
But a source from the ULAP and SnB said they
would try their best to launch a new people’s initiative so that a
plebiscite could be held with the May 14 elections.
“We can still do it in a matter of two
months,” said the source, requesting anonymity. “What took us
too long to submit the required signatures was the problem in Makati
City, which stretched the signature-gathering to five months,” he
said.
DILG denial
Makati Mayor Jejomar on Thursday claimed Puno
was heading the new people’s initiative push.
DILG Undersecretary Brian Yamsuan dismissed the
claim on Friday.
“We don’t want to comment . . . we don’t
want to glorify the statement . . .” Yamsuan said.
This is not the first time UNO had accused the
DILG of being involve in the efforts of the administration to change
the Constitution, last year Binay claimed that Sigaw ng Bayan, the
group pushing for the signature campaign, even used a bus of the
DILG to ferry its members to their meeting place at a restaurant in
Quezon City.
Binay claimed P10 million was used to pay
organizers and people that agreed to sign.
The Makati mayor’s claim, however, seemed to
be bolstered by Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia’s announcement that
local officials would meet next week to discuss a people’s
initiative.
Garcia said the main agenda of the meeting is
the proposal to hold a plebiscite for Charter change simultaneous
with the May 2007 elections.
“The government will save P4 billion if we
hold the plebiscite simultaneous with the elections,” Garcia told
DZMM.
Instead of a parliamentary form of government
with just one house of Congress, Garcia said that the proposal would
be for a presidential form, but with only one congressional chamber.
He also said that the new proposal would abide
by the recent Supreme Court decision, which stated that there should
be an adequate law for a people’s initiative.
“The Supreme Court said if you change the
system of government from presidential to parliamentary, it’s a
revision but if you change presidential-bicameral to a
presidential-unicameral, that’s amendment,” Garcia said.
In a people’s initiative, proponents are
required to gather the signatures of at least 3 percent of voters
from each legislative district and 12 percent of the Philippine
voting population. If this target is met, the signatures will be
sent to the Comelec for verification. Once the Comelec authenticates
the signatures, it will set a date for a plebiscite.
--William Depasupil, Sam Mediavilla and Jefferson Antiporda
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