DAVAO CITY — “I am not ready to say my piece but if my people wants it then I give them freedom,” says Davao del Norte Governor Edwin Jubahib on the planned People’s Initiative.
Last week, the Congress and the Senate passed Resolution of Both Houses of Congress or RBH6 calling for a Constitutional Convention to amend some economic provisions of the Constitution.
The issue started to divide the members of the House of Representatives and the people.
However, in Davao del Norte, Governador Jubahib,is still calm, according to him, “I haven’t read the document about its contents, until then I cannot say my piece.”
But Jubahib strssed, if his people wants to participate he will respect their decision.
The people of Davao were outraged when a Congressman and some politicians issued a statement about the People’s Initiative, accusing their poitical rivals of giving money in exchange of their signature and support.
In conspicuous places tarpaulins are hanged with note “Davaoenos are not to sale.”
The gathering of signatures for the people’s initiative is also done in some areas in the Philippines.
The People’s Initiative is a way to amend the Constitution.
Under Republic Act 6735, known as The Initiative and Referendum Act, it is required that twelve percent of the total number of registered voters sign the petition to for People’s Initiative to prosper and it needs an enabling law in Congress for it to start.
The late senator Mirriam Santiago previously pushed for a People’s Initiatve through Senate Resolution 1733.
Santiago pointed to Article 17, Section 2 of the Constitution that the Constitution can be amended through the people’s initiative.
In 2005, then president GLoria Macapagal-Arroyo on her State of the National Addresspushed for the Charter Change because he said the current political system in the Philippines is a big obstacle to the development of the country.
The amendment of the Constitution has been planned for a long time and it has been pushed many times by the senate and the Congress. However, until now it has not been able to move because every move on the mentioned issue—it immediately raises the issue of bribery.
