Sunday, September 24, 2006
High Court gets bishop's advice
MANILA -- Caloocan City Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez has advised the Supreme Court (SC) to carefully study the petition seeking the reversal of the Commission on Elections' rejection of a people's initiative before handing down a ruling on the issue.
Iñiguez gave the advice following reports that the SC already ruled initially on the petition.
Eight justices have reportedly ruled in favor of upholding the people's initiative move of the Sigaw ng Bayan and Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (Ulap) while seven are against it.
"We just want to convey our sentiments to the Supreme Court that we are not in favor of this kind of Charter change," Iñiguez said.
Newspaper columnist Herman Laurel, in last Friday's Bishops-People's forum held at St. Peter's Church in Commonwealth, Quezon City, revealed their initial analysis that showed eight justices are in favor of the people's initiative and seven are against it.
Iñiguez, chairman of the commission on public affairs of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) reiterated that the Permanent Council already declared its opposition to the way Charter change is going to be conducted.
"We already gave our statement that we are not against Charter change per se but what we are against is the way it is going to be done," he added.
The CBCP, in its pastoral statement issued last Sept. 14, maintained that they will rather go for Constitutional Convention even if it would be an expensive process.
"Holding a constitutional convention will be very expensive, as it will cost several billion of pesos. But it is worth spending that much for something that is good for the greatest number. A constitutional convention will be a better political exercise than convening congressmen as a constituent assembly, which is something that can easily become self-serving. The government has spent enormously on cheating and graft and corruption," the CBCP pastoral statement read.
Sigaw ng Bayan and the Ulap elevated their petition before the Supreme Court after the Commission on Elections denied their people's initiative case due to the lack of enabling law.
The SC has set oral arguments on the case next week. (Sunnex)
(September 24, 2006 issue)
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