The Senate leadership will refrain from commenting on the recent people’s initiative (PI) and will buckle down to work by shifting their focus to pending bills. 

“I-slow down po natin ang away Ngayon kasi ang importante dyan ay kapakanan ng bayan (Let’s slow down from this fight because what’s important is the welfare of our people), and I think all these fighting between the different groups is not going to be good for our economy, our country, our children and children’s children,” Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said in an ambush interview on Wednesday.

“Let’s work together and move forward from this PI issue and let’s start helping the people who are in need the most, dun sa kanilang economic issue, yung gutom na nararamdaman nila, kawalan ng trabaho, pagdadag ng sweldo. Yan na muna siguro ang tututukan namin ngayon bilang Senado (on the economic issue, hunger, lack of jobs, and salary increase. That will be our focus now as a Senate),” he added.

Zubiri assured that they will proceed with the creation of the subcommittee that will discuss the proposed amendment of the three economic provisions of the Constitution in response to the Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 (RBH 6) that he recently filed after a series of discussions with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

It was specified in the RBH 6 that only Section 11 of Article XII or the National Patrimony and Economy; Paragraph 2, Section 4 of Article XIV or the Education, Science and Technology, Arts, Culture, and Sports; and Paragraph 2, Section 11 of Article XVI or the General Provisions will be discussed and reviewed.

Stop PI and we’ll talk 

Meanwhile, Senator Imee Marcos said, in a separate interview, senators are willing to sit down with Speaker Romualdez and other congressmen with the assurance that they will no longer pursue PI.

Marcos, who is now leading the investigation on the irregularities in the PI, was answering the call of congressmen to stop the investigation and hasten the passage of the RBH 6 instead.

She questioned why members of the House of Representatives are interfering in the affairs of the Senate.

The Senator said PI discredits the Marcos administration and wastes a lot of political capital which “can never be recovered again.”

The senator is set to fly to Davao on Friday to open the second inquiry regarding the PI with another set of witnesses and more resource persons.

Retrieve signature lists

The Commission on Elections (Comelec), meanwhile, appealed to PI proponents to retrieve the submitted signature sheets since the proceedings for the measure have been indefinitely suspended.

Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia appealed since many of their offices in cities/municipalities lack space.

“Mas maganda kunin nyo muna sa Comelec mga napareceive. Baka sakali mas maalagaan nyo at mapoprotektahan ang mga documents. Kasi ang liit ng opisina ng Comelec, therefore, baka mawala pa, mabasa, or anuman. Pero ang commitment namin, aalagaan namin mga document hanggang gusto nyo na pullout lahat yan (It would be better if you would retrieve these from the Comelec. It’s more likely that you would be able to preserve and protect these documents. Comelec offices are small. These might be lost, get wet or whatever. But our commitment is we would take care of these documents unless you pull these out),” the poll body chief said in an interview Wednesday.

Garcia said those who would like to retrieve the signature sheets would have to return the certification they have received from the poll body.

On Monday, the poll body halted all PI proceedings to give way to a review of Resolution 10650 which sets guidelines for this method of amending the Constitution.

The poll body has so far received a total of 1,129 city and municipal Offices of Election Officer in 210 legislative districts.

‘Rumor-mongering’

Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said certain anti-PI individuals could have been intentionally spreading false information through rumor-mongering to derail the good intention to amend the economic provision of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Among the supposed fake information, he said, are the “abolition of the Senate,” which alarmed some Senate members; term extension; and no-election scenario.

He said all these lies never became a topic in any discussion in the House of Representatives.

He said the only concern under the initiative is for the amendment of the restrictions in the “economic provision” of the Charter. (PNA) 

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