People's Initiative signature drive has crossed 12% threshold, says Salceda

MANILA, Philippines — People’s Initiative (PI) proponents have clinched enough signatures to fulfill the 12% requirement to propose changes to the 1987 Constitution, a House lawmaker supportive of the PI campaign claimed on Wednesday.

The total number of signatures collected in the PI campaign for Charter change has reached at least 12% of the total number of registered voters, Rep. Joey Salceda (Albay, 2nd District) said in an interview with Radyo DZBB.

Salceda added that each district has already received signatures from at least 3% of their registered voters.

“We’ve already reached the mandate of the people,” Salceda told reporters.

Once submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), signature pages from each legislative district will have to first undergo a certification process for the poll body to ascertain the total number of signatures collected. 

The Comelec will also have to receive a formal petition for the PI and verify each signature in each page, among other steps.

Salceda previously said that the PI campaign is on track to reach its target of having plebiscites by July 8 before the president delivers his third State of the Nation Address.

Lawmakers at the House, however, have butt heads with the Senate, which issued a manifesto condemning the PI due to the possibility that senators will be excluded in the process to amend or revise the 1987 Constitution. 

The petition being circulated for the PI campaign wants to allow Congress to vote for amendments or revisions to the Charter through joint voting, which will give the lower chamber an upper hand as they outnumber the 24-member Senate. 

The Senate manifesto took exception with this proposed amendment, saying: “To allow joint voting will destroy the delicate balance on which our hard-won democracy rests. It will destabilize the principle of bicameralism and our system of checks and balances.” — Cristina Chi