Lagman: No law on people's initiative for Cha-cha

There is no enabling law for people's initiative to amend the constitution, Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman said on Friday.

In an interview, Lagman said he will file a petition questioning the signature campaign once the people's initiative is filed before the Commission on Elections.

“There is no enabling law. The ruling in Santiago vs Comelec that there is no compliant statute to implement the mandate of the Constitution on people’s initiative is still the law of the case. Because the Lambino vs Comelec did not officially and directly abandon the ruling in Santiago vs Comelec,” Lagman said.

“In the Supreme Court decision, you will find out that the bill which became the law originally was only for local initiative. It did not include the people’s initaitive with respect to the Constitution,” he added.

He called the ongoing people's initiative called a “flawed or defective.”

Asked if he will question the ongoing people's inititative to amend the 1987 Constitution, Lagman said, “Yes, definitely I will do that. That one I will do because to my mind, the present campaign of people’s initiative which is actually congressional initiative is defective."

At a press conference on Thursday, fellow Bicolano Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda said people's initiative proponents have already gathered more than the required number of signatures in 60 districts, including Lagman’s constituency.

Lagman said this was “immaterial.”

“Meron nang mga nagpapapirma pero maraming tumatanggi sa aking distrito. Sa akin naman, it’s immaterial kung ilan ang napapirma nila sapagkat yung signature campaign for people’s inititative is flawed or defective,” Lagman said.

(There are people who are signing but many are refusing in my district. As for me, it's immaterial how many they signed because the signature campaign for people's initiative is flawed or defective.)

The legislator also pointed out that the signature campaign must be conducted before an election officer. He cited Republic Act 6735 which provides that petitions for local initiatives must be signed before the election registrar or his or her designated representative.

“If there is a need to sign a local initiative, with more reason there is a need to sign this petition, this sheet being circuated before a Comelec officer or his representatives in order to ensure the integrity of the signature campaign. It is by logical reasoning,” Lagman said. —NB, GMA Integrated News