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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Bishops attack 'no-elections' scenario
MANILA -- The fate of the petition for people's initiative filed by Charter change advocates will be decided Wednesday at the Supreme Court (SC), barring lengthy debates.
The High Court will hold a special en banc meeting to determine the legality of the initiative mounted by the Malacañang-backed Sigaw ng Bayan and the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (Ulap).
The special court session is in line with the pledge of Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban to come out with a decision before the end of the month and before they take a two-week break starting October 30.
In an interview with reporters during the recent Global Forum on Liberty and Prosperity sponsored by the SC, Panganiban admitted that the justices is under pressure from Charter change proponents to allow the people's initiative to push through, but he said the "court is used to pressure."
He gave the assurance that the SC will not allow itself to be swayed by opinions.
The Catholic Church hierarchy, meanwhile, warned against the possibility of having no elections next year, as announced by allies of the Arroyo administration.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) had declared it is still possible to implement a partial automation of the May 2007 elections.
Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said that having no elections next year will cause further political instability.
Citing the January and July pastoral statement of the CBCP, Lagdameo said the "elections in 2007 must not be cancelled," especially if the proposed Charter amendments have not been transparent, referring to the people's initiative being pushed by Sigaw ng Bayan movement and Ulap.
"Changing the Constitution involves a major shift in the form of government and requires widespread participation and total transparency. This is best done through a constitutional convention. The reasons for constitutional change must be based on the common good rather than on self-serving interests or the interests of political dynasties," the July pastoral statement said.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez dismissed the no-election scenario as rumor because it has no basis.
He said only the automation of canvassing, voting and counting will not be implemented since they need more time to do them but the transmission of the election results can be done.
At Malacañang, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said they cannot please everybody but the Palace continues to trust in the integrity and independence of the SC.
Bunye was reacting to the Social Weather Stations survey showing that 62 percent of Filipinos are unsure if the High Court will be able to judge the people's initiative petition fairly.
He said it is unfortunate that because of certain innuendoes and insinuations the credibility of the justices is now being questioned.
During the oral arguments last September 26, Panganiban admitted that he has asked his staff to conduct a research on whether there is such a thing as "insufficient law," indicating that he still maintains his old position that Republic Act (RA) 6735 or the Initiative and Referendum Act is sufficient to implement constitutional initiative.
"There is no such thing as insufficient law. Taken together and interpreted properly, the Constitution (and) RA 6735 are sufficient to implement constitutional initiative," he had said in open court.
"In the future there may be a real proposal to amend the Constitution but (it) cannot push through due to the Santiago ruling so we may have to allow a re-examination (of the Santiago ruling) for the real initiative to push through," he said.
The petition was filed last September 4 by lawyer Raul Lambino of Sigaw and Bohol Governor Erico Aumentado, head of Ulap. It seeks to annul the Aug. 31 resolution of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to junk their petition for initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution for lack of an enabling law for the exercise.
Once the soundness of the initiative petition is determined, Lambino also asked the SC to order the Comelec to immediately set a date for a plebiscite on the proposed revisions before the end of the year.
The group, which claimed to represent some 6.3 million registered voters who have been verified by the Comelec, said the poll body committed grave abuse of discretion when it refused to take cognizance of and give due course to their petition on the ground that an enabling law is needed.
"The right of the people to exercise sovereign power of initiative and recall has been invariably upheld in well-settled jurisprudence prior to the Santiago ruling," petitioners said, referring to the 1997 decision of the SC in the case of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago versus Comelec.
Sigaw, Ulap and the Advocacy Commission claimed to have gathered over 10 million signatures nationwide for their petition, while 6.3 million of them have already been verified by the Comelec.
This is in compliance with Section 2, Article XVII of the 1987 Constitution requiring the signatures of at least 12 percent of the registered voters nationwide and at least three percent of the registered voters in each of the legislative districts.
They said the signatures were verified on the basis of the list of registered voters based on the official Comelec list used in the immediately preceding election.
The Lambino petition is being blocked by One Voice, another multi-sectoral group, the Senate, former president Joseph Estrada, the Alternative Law Groups and other anti-Charter change organizations. (ECV/JMR/DBP/Sunnex)
(October 25, 2006 issue)
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