‘300 cities, towns submit Cha-cha signatures’

MANILA, Philippines — Pages of signatures from around 300 cities and municipalities for the ongoing people’s initiative to amend the Constitution have started pouring in to the different Commission on Elections (Comelec) offices nationwide.

“Based on our monitoring and reports coming from the field, it has been reported that they (Office of Election Officers) have received some signature pages,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia reported yesterday.

“Almost nationwide, we got reports from our local Comelec, from the Cordillera to Bangsamoro,” he added.

Garcia said the Comelec could release, possibly by Friday, the official number of signature pages received by the different OEOs.

According to Garcia, some of the signature pages were rejected because they are lacking in requirements, while others have been submitted to the wrong Comelec office.

He said the OEOs will have to verify whether the proponents declared the correct number of signatures. The OEOs will have to classify the districts involved and will issue the certification upon verification.

The certification will be submitted to the Comelec clerk of court, who shall compare it to the certification submitted by proponents and later submit its recommendation to the commission.

If the Comelec bench finds the petition to be sufficient in form and substance, it will direct the OEOs to verify whether the signatures are from registered or active voters.

Garcia said anyone can file a complaint if those signatures were obtained through irregular means. If the irregularity is proven, the local Comelec has valid ground to exclude that particular signature.

Even without complaints, he said the Comelec local offices can remove “irregular” signatures. An ordinary citizen can also ask the local Comelec to remove his or her signature from the petition.

There are 253 districts nationwide and if proponents are unable to obtain the required three percent of voters in just one of those districts, Garcia said the people initiative cannot push through.

Concerning allegations that politicians are behind the People’s Initiative campaign, Garcia said it is beyond the Comelec’s authority at this point. He said the Comelec will just