IPD

Is GMA’s declaration a plain expression of support for  the people’s initiative? That’s what her allies want us to believe: that the initiative is a genuine clamor of the people. But her strong declaration shows that indeed she knows what is happening and is going to happen to that initiative led by the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG)-Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP)-Sigaw ng Bayan. How could she claim innocence? She should have waited at least for the Comelec to take cognizance of a formal petition to be filed. Moreover, she should have deferred to whatever ruling the Supreme Court makes once the people’s initiative is questioned in court.

But those are the least of her concerns. What’s important to GMA and her allies is to undertake charter change now and avoid being subjected to another impeachment complaint come July. Another impeachment proceeding could be more difficult to ward off. By pushing for Cha-cha she hits two birds with one stone. First, she will no longer need to answer questions on her legitimacy but will continue ruling until 2010 at least (God forbid!) and, second, she will deliver on her promise to Speaker Jose de Venecia for the shift to a parliamentary system.

The current people’s initiative as carried out by the administration is a DILG-ULAP- Sigaw ng Bayan conspiracy, if not a Malacañang plot. That’s putting it in this administration’s language, which is fond of accusing other groups of conspiracy, plots, destabilization, etc.

When Rep. Ronaldo Puno was appointed as head of the DILG it was suspected that the real intention was for him to set into motion GMA’s version of Charter change,  especially since the Constituent Assembly proposal of the House got stalled in the Senate. Using his acumen as an experienced political operator, Puno will again use his DILG network  to realize GMA’s Cha-cha. Puno maintained his network within and outside the DILG,  which he had developed during his time in the former Ministry of Community Development and Local Government under Ferdinand Marcos. Some of his colleagues then are now in the upper echelons of DILG’s bureaucracy, serving as assistant secretary or regional directors. Others have retired and are officers  of the retirees association. Remember also that Puno served as DILG Secretary during Estrada’s short-live presidency. It goes without saying this kept him in close contact with his DILG network and perhaps enabled him to expand it further. This same network allegedly was the backbone of the political machinery in the presidential campaigns of Ramos, Estrada, and in 2004, of GMA herself.

The haste we are seeing now in the signature campaign is not at all accidental. The key factor is Puno at the DILG. Even before he had warmed his seat as Secretary, the Department issued Memorandum Circular 2006-25 directing all local officials to hold barangay assemblies nationwide. In these assemblies the people are supposed to discuss issues affecting them, one of which is the proposal to amend the 1987 Constitution. Holding barangay assemblies is required under the Local Government Code of 1991. So, at face value, the DILG memorandum seems nothing sinister – but for the questionable context and the intense involvement of the Department in these assemblies.

Take, for example, the allegation that DILG personnel distributed the forms being used in signature gathering, which include copies of voters’  lists per precinct and a matrix on the advantages of the parliamentary system. The DILG Regional Offices even formed special project teams to work for the targeted 5.6 million signatures (5.2 million is the minimum requirement). All these are supported with adequate funds. DILG sources reveal that there has been a surprising increase in the budget for   monitoring barangay assemblies.  In early February this year, even before Puno took his oath as DILG Secretary, he reportedly convened a two-day conference of DILG field officials in preparation for their role in the people’s initiative.

Inserting the signature campaign in the barangay assemblies was a smart strategy by Puno. Skilled operator that he is, the requirement under the Local Government Code to hold barangay assemblies is  a perfect cover against allegations that the Palace has a hand on this. It camouflages hidden intentions by reminding the barangays to hold regular assemblies, supposedly for the residents to discuss issues affecting their community.

The people’s initiative is led by Sigaw ng Bayan, a multi-sectoral grouping purportedly of civil society organizations. Closer scrutiny however shows these to be the same organizations that were part of the political machinery in GMA’s presidential campaign and who issued paid advertisements supporting her at the height of the impeachment proceedings. After the 2004 elections, these groups were  mobilized again last year to defend GMA against impeachment, enjoining us ‘to stop all the destabilization/trouble ‘ (Tama na ang Gulo, Tama na ang Pulitika). Thus they are only recycled organizations taking issues for the President at different times. Now they want to impress on us some sort of ‘ people power’ by gathering millions of signatures supporting the people’s initiative. One wonders how these organizations seem to be so overflowing with money that they can easily fund their pro-GMA campaigns, like flooding Metro Manila with pro-GMA streamers and tarpaulins during the impeachment, and whole-page advertisements in major newspapers. Of course, they also commemorated Edsa I last February but were spared the truncheons and violent dispersal that  progressives had to endure in their rallies.

With the assistance of local officials through the Union of Local Authorities (ULAP), which vowed to strongly support GMA and her Cha-cha through people’s initiative, Sigaw ng Bayan can solicit the 5.2 million signatures. In fact, with the combined resources and machinery of the DILG and ULAP, Sigaw ng Bayan claims to have gathered seven million signatures already.

Aside from Puno, another revealing link of Malacañang in this people’s initiative is the designation of Atty. Raul Lambino as spokesman of Sigaw ng Bayan. Who is Atty. Lambino? He is one of the members of the Consultative Commission (ConCom), a body formed by GMA late last year to study and recommend amendments to the Constitution. He also has links with the ‘The Firm’ Villaraza Law Office, whose list of clients include GMA and the First Family. The ConCom’s most notorious recommendation was the cancellation of the 2007 elections –  notorious in the sense that ConCom bowed to the wishes of ULAP and in the process risked whatever worth their output had.  Since  January this year, the ConCom Report has been shelved by the House of Representatives, filed away as  merely a  reference material instead of being considered a primary input in the Congressional deliberations.

After the ConCom’s mandate of only three months, Lambino was made part of the Charter Change Advocacy Group that Malacañang again formed. At the same time, Lambino became the spokesperson of Sigaw ng Bayan. What a coincidence! Clearly what these linkages indicate is that some members of ConCom and the Advocacy Group and those working for people’s initiative – the supposed civil-society Sigaw ng Bayan are in the same loop, GMA’s political machinery.

And why is Atty. Lambino Sigaw ng Bayan’s spokesperson? That is the problem when a political machinery is abruptly transformed into a supposed civil society organization or movement. The bench is not that deep, so to speak. Training a PO [people's organization] leader to be erudite, confident, and articulate does not happen in a day. Especially with the intricate issues that  need explaining, the linkages to the ‘powers that be’ should remain hidden from the public. And so they have to depend on seasoned operators, with the likes of Lambino as their mouthpiece.

Yet there is significant opposition against the people’s initiative. Local officials of Cebu province, which voted for GMA in the past election, rejected the people’s initiative and GMA’s version of charter change. The Cebu Municipal Mayors League believes the signature campaign is illegal and unconstitutional. Other local executives who are members of the opposition parties and party-list like Akbayan have not joined the signature gathering. Hopefully this minority of local officials can still prevent Sigaw ng Bayan from satisfying the minimum requirement of three percent signatures for each legislative district.

Already media reports are exposing the many irregularities in the signature gathering. In some places like Antipolo City,  those who signed the people’s initiative were allegedly paid as much as two hundred pesos. In other places, people were given goods like rice, noodles, and sardines.  But in other areas,  there were no payments, whether in cash or goods; it was the ‘volunteers’ going house-to-house to gather the signatures that were given an honorariam per day.  Such allegations lessen the sincerity and credibility of this supposed people’s initiative. Its proponents are using dirty tactics just to get the signatures.

The trail ahead for this Palace Initiative will be rough and bumpy. That gives the opposition a chance to reverse its course or at least delay the Cha-cha train. For sure, there will be legal questions. The Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that the enabling law, RA 6735, is insufficient as guideline for a people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution. So the Court enjoined the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to stop entertaining similar petitions until Congress passes a new enabling law.

But that is just one of the major hurdles. Granting that the sufficient signatures were gathered,   verifying the signatures is another area of battle. First, the Comelec until now has not come up with guidelines in verifying the signatures. Once the petition is filed with the Comelec, with the gathered signatures attached, what will Comelec do? How will it verify the signatures?   In the absence of guidelines, the Comelec registrars in each municipality, city, and  province will have to devise their own guidelines. That would be an opportunity for the opposition to question each and every signature submitted by the petitioners.

Second, any concerned citizen or group can seek relief from the regional trial courts by petitioning the courts to stop Comelec from taking cognizance of the peoples initiative,  much less verifying the signatures in the absence of guidelines. If a temporary restraining order (TRO) can be obtained, say in at least 10 provinces, then it can significantly delay the Cha-cha train of GMA.

A game plan for the opposition is to delay the process for this Palace Initiative until the possibility of cancelling the 2007 local election becomes dim. Sooner or later, because of GMA’s unpopularity and negative trust ratings, local-government officials’ support for her will wane. After all,  local officials have to worry about their prospects of getting re-elected. Being allied with an unpopular president will hurt their own re-election bids. ( 5 April 2006)

Uploaded 19 April 2006.