Comelec: Cha-cha signatures from over 1,000 towns, cities received

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has received signatures from more than 1,000 municipalities and cities across the country for the ongoing people's initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Comelec Chairperson George Garcia said the poll body has already has signature forms from a total of 1,072 municipalities and cities as of Jan. 26, 2024.

Garcia said, "1,072 na mga munisipyo at siyudad ang nakatanggap ng signature forms as of today. Base sa ating pagtataya, [mula 'yan sa] mga 187 na mga distrito sa buong Pilipinas. Uulitin natin, 254 na districts tayo sa buong bansa," Garcia said.

(We received signature forms from 1,072 municipalities and cities. Based on our estimate, these are from 187 districts. We repeat, we have 254 districts in the country.)

Representation in the people's initiative campaign has apparently risen since the Comelec reported that as of Jan. 21, Saturday, at least 884 cities and municipalities have received signatures pages.

This would indicate that 188 cities and municipalities were added to ongoing people's initiative signature drive, or an increase of 17.5% in less than a week.

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."

Once the required number of signatures is met, proponents of the people's initiative need to file their petition with the Comelec. The poll body will then scrutinize and verify all of the signatures.

After the Comelec verifies that the signatures are authentic and comply with the required tallies for a people's initiative, it will schedule a national plebiscite or referendum where the people will vote on the petitioners' proposed constitutional amendments.

Garcia said last week that voters were asked in the signature pages 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  Constitution does not explicitly provide whether members of the Senate and House of Representatives should vote jointly or separately.

Garcia said poll body has yet to receive reports of signatories withdrawing their signature for the people's initiative.

Last Wednesday, House ways and means panel chairperson and Albay lawmaker Joey Salceda said proponents of the people's initiative have already obtained the required number of signatures to file their petition.

On the same day, however, Charter change advocacy group People's Initiative for Reform, Modernization and Action (PIRMA) said it has collected only 30% of the required 8 million signatures. — VDV, GMA Integrated News