No bribery in Charter change signature drive – Marcos

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (REUTERS FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he would leave it to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to validate the submitted signatures for a petition on a people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution amid allegations of bribery.

“If the signatures were indeed paid for, the Comelec will reject those signatures. Nothing good will come out of that,” he told reporters in an interview on Tuesday in Quezon City.

“We just have to let the Comelec do [its] job, to do [its] work and to validate the signatures. If there’s suspicion that there’s something like that, then those signatures won’t be counted,” he added.

Mr. Marcos made the remarks when asked to comment on efforts to gather signatures for a people’s initiative for Charter change (Cha-cha).

The bribery allegations were first floated by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and later supported by allies of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

But Mr. Marcos maintained that there was no bribery in the effort to gather people’s signatures.

“There’s nothing like that. I hear what is being offered is not cash, but allegedly various benefits. I asked our legislators if this is true. Our releases did not change, it’s still constant,” he said.

The President added that he even considered halting the release of benefits and assistance to remove doubts that the government’s aid programs were being used in efforts to push for Cha-cha.

“I said, let’s stop the release of benefits so they won’t doubt us. But it’s not good to do that because there is really a need [for the assistance programs],” he said.

Ministerial duty

For the Comelec’s spokesperson, only the Supreme Court can stop the poll body from performing its “ministerial duty” of receiving the signed petitions for the people’s initiative.

“The only way is for a higher authority to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO). And the only one that can issue a TRO against the Comelec is the Supreme Court,” John Rex Laudiangco told reporters in an interview on Tuesday.

“There might be an opportunity for that if there is already a justiciable issue. Has the Comelec been doing anything? Has the Comelec any pronouncements already? Do we have a ruling that needs to be questioned before the Supreme Court? There is none yet. In fact, we don’t have any jurisdiction yet. We haven’t received the petition and the only thing that we’re doing is to count the signatures,” he added.