AKBAYAN files Opposition to the “People’s Initiative” petition submitted to COMELEC

AKBAYAN Representatives in Congress and UP Professor Randy David filed today a formal Opposition to the petition for a people’s initiative submitted by Sigaw ng Bayan leaders Raul Lambino and Erico Aumentado on August 25, 2006.

COMELEC announced recently that it shall respect the 1997 Supreme Court decision that bars the body from taking up any petition for a people’s initiative because of the absence of an enabling law.

We are urging COMELEC to dismiss the petition immediately on the following grounds:

• The process of people’s initiative cannot be undertaken, in light of the absence of an adequate law to cover the system of initiative on amendments to the Constitution.
• The process of people’s initiative cannot be used to introduce revisions to the Constitution as such process is limited only to introducing amendments.
• A “people’s initiative” undertaken by the Executive branch with the use of government resources and personnel and with the expenditure of public funds runs afoul of the spirit and nature of a genuinely people-initiated process contemplated by Article XVII, Section 2 of the Constitution.

Get a copy of the Opposition here.