People’s Initiative used wrong format, say
THE People’s initiative was more of a survey rather than an initiative, and the small number of signatures submitted, therefore, may very well indicate that the opposition to the charter change is overwhelming.
This was how Liga ng mga Barangay National President James Marty Lim described the on-going solicitation of signatures from the barangays for the People’s Initiative.
Speaking before the city council here, Lim expressed doubts over the format adopted for the people’s initiative.
“For me it’s like a survey, because it did not follow the right procedures written in the Constitution. The format should be like a petition but this was not,” Lim said.
It being a survey, he surmised that people who did not sign the form can only mean they were opposed to the change of Constitution, and pointed out that those who did not sign far outnumbered those who signed.
He said this could be interpreted to mean that a majority of the people are opposed to the charter change.
Lim also denounced the petition’s format requiring the barangay captains to affix their signatures below the form of which, according to him, should not have been included.
“Hindi sinasabi sa batas na dapat my pirma ang local officials’ o barangay officials dun. This is simply a petition aimed at gathering the sentiments of our people if they favor a Charter Change or not,” he said.
Lim clarified that he was not against the Charter Change because he, too, believes that there are many things to change in the Constitution.
He told the city council that he was among the officials who pushed for the Charter Change and even actively gathered sentiments of his constituents on the issue.
He said that the success of the “initiative” would have been ensured if it were done properly.
Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, on the other, reiterated his earlier clarification that the people’s initiative alone does not amend the Constitution but ‘is intended only give to give congress the data that it needs to effect charter change.” – AQL
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