Incoming Solicitor General Antonio Eduardo B. Nachura made the offer after Senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Joker Arroyo have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to cite Comelec in contempt for ignoring the court’s March 1997 ruling on people’s initiative.

Meanwhile, four major business groups started yesterday a signature drive in support of the people’s initiative.

"If the Comelec shall be cited in contempt, the government is ready to provide them legal assistance. I think it (Comelec) can justifiably defend itself," Nachura said in a telephone interview with a group of Palace reporters yesterday.

The former presidential chief legal counsel is expected to formally assume his new post as government counsel after former Solicitor General Alfredo T. Benipayo abruptly tendered his irrevocable resignation last month.

Secretary Gabriel Claudio, presidential adviser on political affairs, asked the opposition lawmakers to bring to the court their legal petition challenging the Comelec’s decision to begin its verification of the five-million signatures endorsing people’s initiative.

"The opposition has been harassing the opponents and signatories of people’s initiative and the Comelec with all sorts of threats and innuendos about its validity and authenticity," he said in a text message.

"Why don’t they just put their money where their mouth is and file a case in court? The opposition’s tactics are last ditch and panicky, and will not stop the people’s initative which has now every momentum and just use to achieve victory," he added.

Senators belonging to the administration and opposition parties have lashed out at the Comelec for "flagrantly disobeying" the High Tribunal’s decision, promulgated on March 20, 1997, which found the absence of an enabling law to hold people’s initiative effectively.

At present, the High Tribunal has remained firm on its 1997 decision finding Republic Act 6735 to be inadequate in prescribing for a system of people’s initiative or referendum without an enabling law that was supposed to have been passed by Congress.

Despite the SC’s 1997 ruling, Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos has announced his plan to start verifying the five-million signatures the Sigaw ng Bayan has gathered in support of a people’s initiative as the mode by which to amend the 1987 Constitution.

Nachura said the Comelec can readily justify its plan despite the 1997 SC ruling because the circumstances that led the High Tribunal to issue its ruling then in favor of Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago have changed.

"I think that the Comelec can justify and defend itself from the controversy because the circumstances in the case of Senator Santiago are different from the present circumstances with the people’s initiative. It is really based on interpretation," he said.

Nachura, however, did not give any categorical statement or explanation what are the differing circumstances that might lead the Supreme Court to overturn its 1997 ruling in favor of the people’s initiative being pushed by the Arroyo administration.

Sigaw ng Bayan momentum gains as four NGOs launch signature campaign

The momentum for the people’s initiative launched by non-government organizations (NGOs) under Sigaw ng Bayan’s umbrella gained a major push yesterday as four major employers groups representing almost the entire business machinery of the country started their signature drive in support of the two-week old initiative.

The four are the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Philippine Exporters Federation.

Sigaw ng Bayan spokesman Raul Lambino said the support of the four major organizations "has made the people’s initiative campaign virtually unstoppable."

Lambino, a constitutional expert and university law lecturer, also announced more grassroots-based groups and NGOs have mobilized their members for the signature drive, as the number of signatories tallied nationwide breached the six-million mark.

Francis Chua, president of the Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said his group with 170 chamber-members and almost four million employees see the shift to a unicameral parliamentary system as "the one reform that will remove the factors that have made the Philippines uncompetitive for years."

The PCCI, headed by Donald Dee, and ECOP, headed by Miguel Valera, have more than 30,000 corporate members between them, while the exporters’ federation under Sergio Ortiz-Luis is composed of more than 10,000 exporters.

The business sector’s support is virtually complete with a few exceptions such as the Makati Business Club, Lambino said.

Chua said the Senate-House of Representatives "gridlock has perpetuated poverty in the Philippines – and we will never lift our people’s lives if we don’t move away from the presidential bicameral system."

Chua further said once the change in the political structure is achieved, the country leaders should move for the second phase of Charter reform, which is the lifting of the economic restrictions long pushed by businessmen.

This is one of eight core amendments pushed by the national partnership launched in October last year by the House Majority Coalition led by Speaker Jose de Venecia and the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines representing the entire machinery of government nationwide. The ULAP, under Gov. Erico Aumentado, has a nationwide membership of more than 1.7 million.

The lifting of restrictive economic provisions, Chua said, would trigger a massive inflow of foreign investments to "build thousands of factories and create millions of jobs in mass housing, public works and infrastructure, public utilities, mining and oil exploration, mass media and education, with emphasis on science and information technology.

Lambino, meanwhile, said that Sigaw ng Bayan has received support from a dozen organizations of indigenous peoples (IPs) that are pushing for Charter reforms to give tribal communities a share in economic development.

He identified them as the Organization of Teduray Lambangian Conference (OTLAC), Subanen Professional Association (SPA), NAPC-Indigenous Peoples Council, United Bagobo Association (UBA), Samahan ng Tribong Aeta at Abiling (SATRAA), Association of Tribal Councils of the Philippines (ATCOP), and the Tribal Communities Association of the Philippines.

He said the others are Association of Poor and Indigenous Peoples (API), Mansaka-Mandaya Tribal Association, Alliance of Concerned Teduray of the Region, Tribal Association of the Philippines, Philippine Council for the Advocates of Peace and the Provincial Consultative Body.

Sigaw ng Bayan said the latest count showed that the multi-sectoral coalition will easily breach the 10-million mark.

Lambino said more major organizations are expected to declare their support shortly for people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution, including the moderate and much-respected Trade Union Congress of the Philippines which has one million members.

"Our IPs are unfortunately among the most neglected sectors in our society. For them to throw in their support for Charter change means that they are pinning their hopes on a new political system and an overhauled economic structure to finally give them their just share of the fruits of economic growth," Lambino said.

Lambino said more groups are set to join the escalating calls for a People’s Initiative towards Charter change in the days ahead, as Sigaw ng Bayan continues to bring its advocacy campaigns to various sectors of society in strategic parts of the country.

A professor of constitutional law, Lambino said the target of gathering 10 million to 12 million signatures of support for a People’s Initiative is now within easy reach following the move by governors, business executives, local officials in Mindanao and other sectoral leaders to lead the snowballing call for Charter change.

Despite surpassing the 5.12-million signatures required under the Constitution to carry out a People’s Initiative, Lambino stressed that Sigaw ng Bayan and the said personalities and groups have banded together to step up their advocacy campaign to prove to critics that the popular clamor for Charter change has reached an irreversible momentum.

In Mindanao, for instance, Lambino said widespread support for People’s Initiative is illustrated by the full backing given to constitutional reforms by 20 of the 24 governors in the South, along with countless other local executives.

Among these adherents are North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol, president of the Federation of Mindanao Governors and Mayors; ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan; and City Mayors Vicente Emano of Cagayan de Oro, Pedro Acharon of General Santos and Muslimin Sema of Cotabato.

The other governors, Lambino said, are Wahab Akbar (Basilan), Bashier Manalao (Lanao del Sur), Datu Andal Ampatuan (Maguindanao), Benjamin Loong (Sulu), Erlpe John Amante (Agusan del Norte), Adolph Edward Plaza (Agusan del Sur), Rolando Yebes (Zamboanga del Norte), Aurora Cerilles (Zamboanga del Sur), Pedro Romualdo (Camiguin).

Imelda Dimaporo (Lanao del Norte), Loreto Leo Ocampos (Misamis Occidental), Jose Caballero (Compostela Valley), Gelacio Gementiza (Davao del Norte), Benjamin Bautista (Davao del Sur), Ma. Elena Palma Gil (Davao Oriental), Migs Dominguez (Sarangani) and Datu Pax Mangudadatu (Sultan Kudarat).

Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado, head of both LPP and the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), and three Luzon governors – Tomas Joson III of Nueva Ecija, Enrique Garcia of Bataan and Leandro Verceles Jr. of Catanduanes – earlier agreed to team up with Sigaw ng Bayan and three of the country’s biggest business groups to step up the People’s Initiative drive and double the number of signatories to as high as 12 million.

The three business leaders who joined the governors in this formidable alliance with Sigaw ng Bayan were Francis Chua of the Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII), Donald Dee of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), James Dy of the Filipino-Chinese General Chambers of Commerce FCGCC).

This commitment was sealed in a March 29 meeting at the Century Park Hotel in Manila, which was attended by Lambino, Dee, Chua, Aumentado and the three Luzon governors.

Comelec officials unfazed by warnings issued  by opposition leaders

Commission on Elections officials led by Chairman Benjamin S. Abalos Sr. have remained unfazed by the warnings of opposition leaders that they could be cited in contempt if they would allow starting today the verification of signatures of those who support the Charter change by Comelec regional directors, election officers and other field personnel.

Abalos, along with Commissioners Resurreccion Z. Borra and Romeo A. Brawner, said the Comelec has a duty to do and it is determined to do it as mandated by the law and the Constitution.

Poll officials expressed their determination to proceed with the verfication of signatures of those who support the Charter change after Senators Joker Arroyo and Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. warned that they face possible contempt of court charges if they authorize election officials to begin verifying the signatures gathered by organizers of people’s initiative to amend the Constitution.

Both senators pointed out that the March 19, 1997 Santiago vs Comelec case permanently enjoined the Comelec from entertaining any petition for people’s initiative to amend the Constitution until a sufficient law shall have been enacted by Congress.

Comelec officials said they could not imagine how they could be cited in contempt when the verification of signatures is one of the acts authorized by the Supreme Court before the filing of a petition for people’s initiative in its decision in the case of Santiago vs Comelec, G. R. No. 127325, March 19, 1997.

The other acts the Comelec is allowed to perform, they added, are prescribing the form of the petition, issuing through its Election Records and Statistics Office a certificate on the total number of registered voters in each legislative district, and assisting, through the election registrars, in the establishment of signature stations.

Borra said in Bacolod City over the weekend that he sent a directive to all regional Comelec directors to begin the verification of signatures as soon as possible, while Brawner said in a statement that verification of signatures is just part of the process of preparing a petition.

"It is not the petition itself, so the Comelec can still perform the verification function the way it does with recall elections. But once the petition is filed, that becomes a different matter,’’ Brawner said.

The signatures of Charter change supporter that are expected to be verified first by Comelec regional directors and other field personnel are those gathered in Negros Occidental and Manila. Daisy Real of Negros Occidental Provincial Office has announced that the verification of signature in her province will start today.

The date for verification of signatures in Manila of Charter change supporters was not yet announced by the Comelec but it confirmed that the request for verfication was already made by Manila Manila Mayor Lito Atienza.

Atienza, the Comelec reported, has submitted a total of 155,123 signatures constituting 16 percent of the total number of voters in Manila.

Abalos said it may take about a month for the Comelec to finish the verification of signatures nationwide. He said if a petition for initiative is filed, it will be decided by the Comelec en banc. (E. T. Suarez)