Sigaw’s motion on PI raises no new issues —Joker

Majority of the proponents of the people’s initiative as a means to amend the 1987 Constitution want Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio to inhibit himself from the SC deliberation on the motion for reconsideration filed by Sigaw ng Bayan.

These parties have sought Carpio’s inhibition from the proceedings because of his close association with Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, who publicly branded the people’s initiative as a "hare-brained" idea with no legal basis.

Sigaw ng Bayan spokesman Raul Lambino told reporters at the Weekly Balitaan sa Rembrandt Hotel forum in Quezon City that consultations are being held to determine whether they will formally file a motion to seek Carpio’s inhibition.

"Majority of the proponents of people’s initiative feel that because of the harsh statement of Cruz against the people’s initiative, it’s just proper for Justice Carpio to inhibit (himself) from the deliberations of the motion for reconsideration we filed the other day," Lambino said.

He also said Carpio and Cruz are close associates in their law firm.

In a motion for reconsideration filed through Solicitor-General Antonio Eduardo Nachura, the petitioners asked the SC to nullify its Oct. 25 ruling against the people’s initiative.

In the petition, Lambino and the other petitioners asked the SC to focus on the issue of the sufficiency of Republic Act 3765 and let the Commission on Elections (Comelec) decide on the factual issues regarding the manner by which the petition signatures were gathered.

He said the SC decision sidestepped the main issue and merely addressed a non-issue when the High Court opined that the petition for a people’s initiative was a "grand deception and gigantic fraud" because the full text of the petition was circulated with the signature sheets.

"What we brought up for review under the present petition for certiorari is the validity and correctness of the Comelec dismissal based on the ruling of the case of Santiago vs Comelec — not the sufficiency of the petition for initiative," the petition reads.

Lambino said refocusing the issue was unfair and was a move that violated the petitioners’ collective right to procedural due process because it condemned them as perpetrators of a "grand deception and gigantic fraud" without informing them of the charges.

On the grounds of the adequacy of the law, Lambino said at least nine of the SC justices said in their separate opinions on the matter that there is a sufficient law governing the people’s initiative to trigger a national referendum for the proposed shift in the form of government from the existing bicameral presidential system to a unicameral parliamentary form.

Lambino and Demosthenes Donato asked the High Court in their petition for certiorari that the motion for reconsideration be set for oral arguments. They also asked the SC to set aside the Oct. 25 ruling for lack of merit.

They also asked the SC to set aside the Comelec resolution, which they said denied the petition for initiative due course because the Comelec decision was issued with "grave abuse of discretion."

Lambino and Donato also asked the SC to direct the Comelec to comply with the people’s initiative provision of the Constitution and set a plebiscite within the prescribed period.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joker Arroyo expects the SC to uphold its ruling on the people’s initiative petition, primarily because of what he described as the weak motion for reconsideration filed by Sigaw ng Bayan.

According to Arroyo, the motion for reconsideration raised no new issues that would merit further deliberation by the SC. "The Sigaw ng Bayan has not raised any new matter that would justify or persuade the SC to change its mind. It’s a repeat of what they said already so there’s nothing new."

Arroyo, who argued the case against the people’s initiative petition before the Supreme Court, said all the issues raised in the motion for reconsideration were already deliberated upon extensively during the course of the hearings conducted by the SC.

He also said that even if the SC reverses its decision, the result would not "bode well for Sigaw."

He said the net result of the dissenting opinion in the SC ruling on the petition was for the Comelec to implement the petition of Sigaw ng Bayan, despite its 6.3 million verified voters’ signatures.

"That raises a lot of questions of fact, the determination of which would take a lot of time. It would be overtaken by the May 2007 elections," Arroyo said. "That defeats the come-on of charter changers that there would be no election come May." — Perseus Echeminada, Marvin Sy and Jose Rodel Clapano