Press Release
February 16, 2006
GOVT OFFICIALS CANT ACT AS ORGANIZERS OF PEOPLES INITIATIVE TO AMEND CHARTER
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban)
today said the move to amend the 1987 Constitution by peoples
initiative will not prosper if Malacañang
, congressional and local
government officials will act as sponsors and organizers of this
political activity.
Pimentel said the involvement of Interior and Local Government
Secretary-Designate Ronaldo Puno, Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. and
the governors and other local government executives will defeat the
constitutional intent that peoples initiative to directly amend the
Constitution should be undertaken by the ordinary people themselves.
He said the report that Puno convened a two-day meeting of regional,
provincial and city directors of the Department of Interior and
Local Government to map out their role in the peoples initiative
for Charter Change betrays the fact this endeavor is the brainchild
of the Arroyo government.
I wish to remind him (Puno) that this process is reserved for the
people. That is why it is called peoples initiative, as
distinguished from the official initiative of changing the
Constitution, which is done through either of two ways one of
Congress, acting as a constituent assembly or by a Constitutional
Convention, the minority leader said.
Pimentel expressed dismay that the Palace has mobilized the
provincial governors and city-municipal mayors to get the peoples
initiative process moving in their respective areas.
He belittled the move of the governors and mayors to spearhead the
solicitation of 5 to 6 million signatures to be used in a petition
to amend the Constitution to be filed with the Commission on
Elections and the Supreme Court.
Pimentel said such efforts will be an exercise in futility because
the petition is in danger of being thrown out by election and
judicial authorities in view of the fact that public officials, from
the President down to the local government executives have no
business acting as prime movers behind the peoples initiative for
Charter Change.
The third method of amending the Constitution is reserved by the
Constitution for the people. So the intervention of government
officials, even by the local officials is not necessary because that
will destroy the essence of the peoples initiative as a means of
amending the Constitution, which is exclusively reserved for the
people, he explained.
Should the governors and mayors insist on playing a lead role in
such process, Pimentel said it should no longer be called peoples
initiative but politicians initiative.
Pimentel cited two other reasons why the peoples initiative to
modify the Constitution will not succeed.
First, the peoples initiative cannot be validly used for the shift
from presidential to a parliamentary system and removal of the
so-called protectionist economic provisions of the Constitution
which will entail a major revision of the fundamental law. The
Constitution envisions the peoples initiative to apply only to
simple or minor amendments.
Second, the Supreme Court in 1997 already held that there was still
no valid law to implement the system of peoples initiative for
amending the Charter. The existing law on initiatives and
referendum, Republic Act 6735, covers only initiative to change
national and local laws.
Pimentel said that since peoples initiative is a private effort of
the citizens, no taxpayers money can be legally appropriated for
such activity.
It should be understood by those concerned that it is illegal for
public funds to be used for or to back up a peoples initiative, he
said. |