Salceda: 80% of PH already in process of submitting signatures for PI

MANILA, Philippines — At least 80 percent of the country’s legislative districts are already in the process of submitting the People’s Initiative signature campaign to local election bodies, Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda said on Thursday.

In a press briefing, Salceda also believes that the People’s Initiative proponents will have reached the requirements stated under the 1987 Constitution — that the constitution can be amended through a petition of at least 12 percent of voters nationwide.

According to the lawmaker, several towns in Albay province like Tabaco, Jovellar, Polangui, Libon, and Bacacay, had registered signatures from at least 20 percent of its voting population — way higher than the Constitution’s requirement of three percent.

“I think most of the country, by next week, we must have already achieved the 12 percent, beyond the 12 percent of national (voters), it’s a question lang talaga of physically submitting it to the local election (body).  We are in this process already pervasively I think 80 percent of the country is already in that process,” he told reporters at the House of Representatives complex.

“Ang matagal is the validation, eh ‘di bantayan niyo na lang ‘yon validation ng Comelec (What is taking long is the validation, you can just monitor that validation with the Commission on Elections),” he added.

Salceda admitted that there are still 20 districts that are lagging behind in the signature campaign, although there has been a movement since he first heard about it last December 2023.

There are 253 districts in the entire country, each represented by a lawmaker in the House.

Salceda, however, refused to name which specific district was lagging behind.

“Well, I heard it from people who were right in the middle of it, 20 (districts), and these are the same 20 from the start kasi let’s say in a January 4 […] well I heard about it on December 23.  Of course, there has been movement,” he said.

“I can’t, the name of the province is I can’t.  You must remember that these are district-based, so that’s why you can imagine na when you refer to a certain district as the district of a particular Congressman, in all insofar as it refers to,” he added.

Earlier, Salceda said that People’s Initiative proponents are targeting mid-2024 — around July — as the possible date for the plebiscite to amend the 1987 Constitution’s economic provisions.

The amendments are aimed at removing restrictive economic provisions, which the House leadership believes hinder the entry of foreign investments.

Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. last December 2023, called for the resumption of charter change talks.

However, instead of a constituent assembly or a constitutional convention, the House leaders said that the changes may be sought using a People’s Initiative, where voters will sign a signature campaign calling for amendments.

READ: Amending Constitution last piece of the puzzle for economic growth — Romualdez 

However, several Minority lawmakers have contested the way that signatures were supposedly garnered, as Albay 2nd District Rep. Edcel Lagman claimed that public funds within the Commission on Elections (Comelec) were being used for the People’s Initiative push.

READ: Lagman claims public funds being used for Cha-cha drive 

These were denied by ranking lawmakers, with Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co maintaining that Comelec’s restored funds for 2024 were borne out of request from the poll body’s officials.