Commission on Elections Chairman George Garcia (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Bayan Muna party-list’s distribution of withdrawal forms for retracting signatures in the people’s initiative (PI) campaign to amend the 1987 Constitution is premature, said Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia on Monday.
According to Garcia, the proponents of PI have yet to file their formal petition to the Comelec, which means that for the commission, the initiative has yet to begin.
READ: Group starts distribution of people’s initiative withdrawal affidavit
“Sa kasalukuyan po ay wala pa…lahat po ng signatures…again, wala pa pong bisa iyan; wala pa pong kwenta lahat iyan,” the Comelec chair said in a radio interview at Radyo 630.
(Currently, there are no signatures. Again, those are not valid yet; all of those have no value.)
This also means that Bayan Muna’s dissemination of “Affidavit and Manifestation of Withdrawal” is premature.
“Kung saka-sakali, premature po ang lahat ng ganiyan. Pero at the same time, hindi po natin pipigilan ang ganiyang initiative,” Garcia added.
(If ever, all of those are still premature. But simultaneously, we will not stop those kinds of initiatives.)
The Comelec chair has previously stated that accepting the signature forms submitted by the PI’s private group proponent is merely a ministerial duty.
The commission will become formally involved only after accepting the petition for PI and commencing the verification of signatures, Garcia explained.
PI proponents, People’s Initiative for Reform and Action, earlier estimated that they will meet the required number of signatures for filing the petition for PI before the Comelec by April this year.
Read: Pirma exec: Signatures for people’s initiative to be completed by April
On Sunday, Bayan Muna said they have begun giving out withdrawal forms to give PI signatories who were “duped” into signing for the initiative a chance to “right a wrong.”