‘Sigaw ng Bayan’ unperturbed over opposition tactics
DAGUPAN CITY – It’s still People’s Initiative or bust for the Sigaw ng Bayan.
The prime mover of the PI remains unperturbed by the string of injunctions filed in various districts across the country seeking to stop the verification of signatures it claimed to have gathered for the amendment of the Constitution.
Lawyer Raul Lambino, Sigaw ng Bayan spokesman, branded the petitions filed in Roxas City, General Santos City, Quezson City, Pasig City, Makati City and in Manila as “nuisance suits.”
It claims it has now gathered 8.9 million signatures which represent nearly double the minimum constitutional requirement of 5.6 million, or 12 percent of the total registered voters to push for the people’s initiative process.
The cases filed, however, can effectively prevent it from complying with the requirement that at least 3% of registered voters in all districts should be registered in support of a People’s Initiative.
Lambino said those filing the petitions “belong to the same group of opposition belonging to the same parties, with same personalities who are doing forum shopping”.
He admitted that while the TRO (temporary restraining order) filed in Roxas City and General Santos City were granted, the verification process for the gathered signatures by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will only delay the process temporarily.
But Lambino said his group is preparing charges against the judges who granted the TROs to be filed in the Supreme Court for gross ignorance of the law because he said “regional trial courts have no jurisdiction over the Comelec and it is the ministerial duty of the Comelec to undertake verification of signatures”.
He described Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay’s charge that even signatures submitted included voters who have long been dead as “malicious.”.
Lambino said they are now about to file their petition at Comelec, Manila. — EVA
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