By Junex Doronio
MANILA — Despite the stiff opposition from an election lawyer, the Commission on Elections on Tuesday said there’s nothing wrong in its move to receive and count signatures in an ongoing People’s Initiative (PI) campaign to amend the 1987 Constitution even before a petition was filed.
Comelec chairman George Garcia pointed out that the signatures were being tallied based on the guidelines specified in the poll body’s Resolution 10650.
“We cannot change the guidelines when there is already a process ongoing… at this point there is no petition yet. This process has not yet started. What the Comelec is doing is a purely ministerial function,” Garcia said in a television interview.
He explained that local Comelec offices would eventually certify the signature forms that would “form part of a petition that will be filed later.”
On Monday (January 22), election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said it was “premature” to submit the signature sheets to the poll body without a formal petition lodged with the Comelec.
Macalintal argued that “it gives a wrong impression to the people that an initiative to amend the charter has already been properly or validly initiated.”
(el Amigo/MNM)
