MANILA — The Commission on Elections on Tuesday defended its move to receive and count signatures in an ongoing People's Initiative campaign to amend the 1987 Constitution even before a petition was filed.

Speaking on ANC, Comelec chairman George Garcia said the signatures were being tallied based on the guidelines specified in the poll body's Resolution 10650.

"We cannot change the guidelines when there is already a process ongoing," he said, pointing out that local Comelec offices would eventually certify the signature forms that would "form part of a petition that will be filed later."

"Meaning to say at this point there is no petition yet. This process has not yet started. What the Comelec is doing is a purely ministerial function," Garcia added.

When asked why not wait for a petition to be filed before counting the signatures, Garcia said the petition could be dismissed if it lacks signature certification from the Comelec.

Certifying signatures is different from the process of verifying them, he added.

"One of the requirements under the law and under the rules is there should be an attachment [to the petition] as to how many signatures were received by the local Comelec," he said.

"And we can only find that out via the certifications that our local Comelec" will issue to the proponents," he added.

'PREMATURE'

On Monday, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said it was "premature" to submit the signature sheets to the poll body without a formal petition lodged with the Comelec.

Macalintal believes "it gives a wrong impression to the people that an initiative to amend the charter has already been properly or validly initiated."

He cited the 2006 case Lambino vs Comelec where the Supreme Court ruled that "people must first read the petition before they sign it."

"[T]he signature sheets containing the alleged signatures of voters cannot be the basis to start a valid initiative considering that, on its face, there was no existing petition yet when the said signatures were made and no petition yet to be read and understood and to give consent thereon," he said.

He pointed out that the Comelec, at this time, could only issue a certification about the official number of registered voters in each legislative district.

SIGNATURES

Garcia reported some 900 cities and municipalities nationwide have submitted signatures for the People's Initiative.

He said this represents more or less 163 districts out of the 254 total districts nationwide.

The public, according to Republic Act 6735, can propose constitutional amendments through the People's Initiative by filing a petition signed by at least 12 percent of the total number of registered voters and at least 3 percent of registered voters in each district.

Once the required number of signatories is reached, the general voting public will head to a plebiscite to decide whether or not they approve of the proposal.