THE Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines’ announcement that it will have another People’s Initiative signature campaign to make up for its earlier failed attempt to amend the Constitution has the public on edge.
Heightening the people’s apprehension is the ready response of Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos who lost no time issuing new rules paving the way for the new Initiative.
There is still time for it, he said, and a plebiscite on its proposals can be held together with the May 10 elections.
It will take weeks to collect the required four million plus signatures. Can the Comelec conscientiously check each signature in just another few weeks and expect an increasingly cynical public to accept its okay?
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Proclaiming its obedience to the law, the ULAP will have a single proposal: A unicameral legislature in a presidential system.
But abolishing the Senate affects not just one but several provisions in the Constitution. It is not a simple amendment. It is a revision.
The issue may land in the Supreme Court and because of time constraints, there will be no plebiscite in May.
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Meanwhile, Palace Chief of Staff Michael Defensor is sweetening his courtship of the voters by again declaring his rock-hard opposition to the revival of Charter change, citing the people’s angry opposition to it.
Although expected to resign from the Cabinet to run his senatorial campaign, he said he would delay this in order to unite the Cabinet against Charter change action which imperils the administration and "the country in general."
For opposing Charter change, Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr. was drummed out of the Cabinet. Defensor said he was not afraid of meeting the same fate.
Being smarter than most of his confreres, he would welcome it.
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