Saturday, October 28, 2006 Lawmaker lauds SC for junking people's initiative
REPRESENTATIVE of the 2nd District Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino Jr. praised the Supreme Court (SC) for its recent decision of junking the people's initiative.
Last Wednesday, the SC with the vote of 8-7, decided in favor of junking the petition for Charter change through people's initiative filed by Sigaw ng Bayan and Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (Ulap) for its being "defective."
Despite its compliance to the required signatures -- 12 percent of the total registered voters nationwide, the SC ruled that there were irregularities in acquiring the signatures.
The SC stood firm by its 1997 ruling on Santiago vs Comelec, that the people's initiative lacks an enabling law and is only limited to amendment not revision, which it is seeking.
The people's initiative aims to change the form of government from presidential to federal-parliamentary.
One thing pushed to create a parliamentary is to extend and or lift the terms of elected officials, which Miriam Santiago in the 1997 petition argued, is a revision of the whole constitution and not only an amendment.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. defined revision as an overhaul of the Constitution.
Sigaw ng Bayan and Ulap members vowed to file a motion before the 15-day moratorium the SC lapses.
Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, president of the League of Cities of the Philippines, was dismayed with the decision.
He said that member organizations, especially the local government units are determined to file a motion for reconsideration. (LABB)
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