• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
As the signatures in the people’s initiative supporting amendments to the 1987 Constitution submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Negros Occidental increased to 211,741, the campaign to assist those who want to voluntarily withdraw their signatures has also started.
Bacolod City-based lawyer Cesar Beloria Jr., who is spearheading an initiative to help those who want to withdraw their signatures, said that those who had signed admitted that they did not understand what they have signed for.
“It is their prerogative if they withdraw their signatures,” Provincial Elections Supervisor Ian Lee Ananoria yesterday said.
Ananoria said the Comelec has yet to verify the signatures “so it is premature to say it’s their signatures”.
Once they file a petition for Charter Change with the en banc, then the Comelec offices will be ordered to verify the signatures they submitted, he added.
“As of now, we don’t have anything to do with their signature campaign until a petition has been filed,” Ananoria said.
Meanwhile, Beloria, maintaining that no one is behind him, said that there is something wrong with the process as he also expressed doubts on the authencity and validity of the signature campaign, especially in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.
The move of Beloria was also in response to the call of Comelec Chairman George Garcia that people who had signed a petition for a people’s initiative could still withdraw their signatures if they did not fully understand the significance of the planned Charter change.
Beloria said they have volunteers going around the barangays, carrying forms for people to sign so they can withdraw their signatures.
“Some people were made to believe that their signatures were in exchange for programs of the government or that somebody influenced them,” he noted.
He added that others said they were told that their signature will mean the continuity of their financial assistance from the government while some were forced to sign as their parents are working in a barangay in Bacolod.
Beloria also called on the Department of the Interior and Local Government to investigate reports that the signature campaign supporting ChaCha are spearheaded by barangay officials.
As of Jan. 22, records of Comelec-Negros Occidental showed that signatures in support to the people’s initiative have further risen to 211,741, with additional signatures of 29,294 coming from Victorias City, E.B. Magalona, La Castellana and Hinobaan.
Highly-urbanized Bacolod City logged the highest number of signatures in support to the people’s initiative at 69,098. | GB
