Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22) — The signature sheets for a purported petition for charter change (cha-cha) via people’s initiative have no evidentiary value, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said, urging the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to stop accepting them.
“It is just a waste of time and paper because these signature sheets have no evidentiary value or cannot be the basis of an initiative,” Macalintal said on Monday. “It gives a wrong impression to the people that an initiative to amend the charter has already been properly or validly initiated.”
Macalintal said a petition to amend the 1987 Constitution is yet to be filed, therefore, submitting signatures to the Comelec is premature.
“Without a formal petition having been filed, it is premature to submit these signature sheets to the Comelec and there is likewise no valid reason for the Comelec to receive them. In other words, the signatures cannot be filed ahead of the petition,” he said.
He added that the poll body cannot verify the signatures until verification fees required under Comelec Resolution No. 10650, which amounts to some P100,000, are paid.
“At present, the only valid act that Comelec could undertake is to issue a ‘certification as to the number of registered voters in each legislative district which the petitioner/s shall attach to their petition’ to conduct an initiative,” the lawyer said.
Comelec spokesperson Rex Laudiangco, meanwhile, explained that the signature forms presented before election officers are part of the preliminary stages of a petition for people’s initiative.
Laudiangco said procedures followed by Comelec local offices comply wth Comelec Resolution 10650.
The resolution states: “It must be alleged in said petition under oath, among others, that the required number of signatures was already collected and gathered by the proponent/s, the signature sheets therefor were already submitted to the concerned office of the EO (election officer), and a certification was duly issued by the EO.”
Certificates will then be issued stating the number of voters who signed, which will be given to the proponent. This will be part of the documents to be submitted to the clerk of Comelec once the party endorsing the petition determines that it was able to meet the percentage requirements, Laudiangco earlier explained.
Last week, Comelec reported that over 400 cities and municipalities nationwide received signature forms
