|
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Charter change efforts off to Comelec
By Rene H. Marte and Minerva B. Gerodias
With Allan I. Varquez
CEBU CITY -- Allies of the Arroyo administration hit the road Saturday to get signatures in support of efforts to amend the 1987 Constitution, but some opposition to the move surfaced.
Cebu City South District Representative Antonio Cuenco appealed for residents to take part in the people's initiative campaign by signing the required forms.
Signing the forms simply "jumpstarts" the process of amending the 1987 Constitution, he said, because a plebiscite will have to be held first if the required number of signatures is achieved.
The signatures will now be sent to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which will verify that the names listed are those of registered voters. After verification, the Comelec has 45 to 60 days to schedule a plebiscite.
This early, however, Barangay Ermita, Cebu City residents rejected the campaign outright, telling officials they do not want the 1997 Constitution to be tampered with.
Barangay Captain Felicisimo Rupinta said the residents do not want those in power to make amendments to the Constitution, saying the government should instead enforce several provisions that remain unimplemented.
Unaware
Rupinta said they were there simply to get the sentiments of the people and not to convince them to sign the people's initiative forms.
Opposing organizations shared the same opinion that residents are not properly oriented yet on the Charter change issue.
Akbayan Cebu secretary-general Alvin Dizon said no massive information and education campaign was made on the rationale of Charter change, so the people could fully grasp the implications of a proposed shift from presidential to parliamentary government, among other facets of the issue.
"President Arroyo, through the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), is only reaching out to the barangays now because she needs the signatures, but they did not involve the barangays and their communities in the discussions and formulation of her proposed amendments," Dizon said in a press statement.
Urban poor representative Alma Rusiana, from Sigaw ng Bayan, a coalition campaigning for Charter change, also asked that they be given another venue where residents can gather solely for a Charter change discussion.
Synchronized
DILG Cebu City Chief Patricio Gabuya said their office will submit results of the signature campaign to the Comelec soon.
DILG workers distributed Saturday the people's initiative forms, as well as a one-page primer on the differences, advantages and disadvantages of shifting from a bicameral/presidential government to a unicameral/parliamentary system.
The Association of Barangay Councils in Cebu Province assured they did not force their constituents to sign in favor of the Charter change during Saturday's synchronized barangay assemblies.
ABC Cebu president Teresita Celis said she gathered her constituents in Poblacion, Boljoon Saturday morning and informed them about Charter change.
She admitted that many supported and signed the people's initiative form although there were others who expressed their opposition.
"I told them, I will not force you. Sa inyong kabubut-on kun mosuporta ba mo," she said.
Politics
Poblacion has almost 2,000 registered voters. More than 1,000 gathered during Saturday's assembly that lasted for more than two hours.
But in Bantayan, a former ABC president said he did not hold an assembly because he was not officially informed about it.
Binaobao Barangay Captain Edgardo Layese said he and his councilors do not support the signature captain because they believe that the proper venue for the people is a plebiscite.
Layese said the DILG and the local officials did not send them notices, maybe because they are not allies of Bantayan Mayor Geralyn Escario.
But Binaobao's barangay secretary attended a meeting at the town hall last Wednesday and they were told that the signatures will be used to support the Charter change.
The secretary reported to Layese during the session Saturday but they agreed that they will not gather signatures for that purpose.
Doleout
Each barangay was under orders to hold a general assembly Saturday. The DILG had said it should include discussions on "current issues and concerns affecting the country, city and the barangay."
In the case of Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City, one "signature solicitor" told a resident to sign without bothering to explain to her what it was for.
"Pirma lang, pirma. Papirmahon man gyud mo dinhi (Sign, just sign. You must sign)," she was heard as saying.
Representative Raul del Mar (Cebu City, north) said the general assembly is not new and its purpose is also to get information from each barangay the projects it wants to undertake.
He said each of the 46 barangays in his district will get a P1-million allocation from his Priority Development Assistant Fund (PDAF) for projects they have identified in the general assembly.
Last year's PDAF aid for each barangay, however, decreased after the National Government cut each congressman's PDAF from P65 to P75 million to only P40 million.
Door-to-door
Del Mar said the original PDAF allocation was restored this year.
In a separate interview, Cuenco said signature solicitors will start visiting each home and persuade registered voters to sign the forms.
Each registered voter will be asked to write his name, precinct number, address, birth date, and then sign.
The Comelec will verify the information by comparing this with their records.
Each form serves as proof that the signatories "approved the proposed amendment to the 1987 Constitution."
Ermita Councilor Tony Conahap, however, pointed out that the problem right now is not the kind of government the country has "but the ones who lead it."
Article 17, Section 2 of the Constitution reads "amendments to the Constitution may likewise be directly proposed by the people through initiative, upon a petition of at least 12 percent of the total number of registered voters, of which every legislative district must be represented by at least three percent of the registered voters therein".
That means that for every 200 registered voters in each precinct, six should sign the people's initiative form.
Efforts to amend the Constitution through either a constitutional convention or a constitutional assembly already failed because both the Senate and the House of Representatives did not reach a common ground.
The alternative provided for by the Constitution is through a people's initiative.
(March 26, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
