GORDONS REACTION TO THE SC DECISION
ON PEOPLES INITIATIVE

I am glad that the Supreme Court (SC) dismissed the peoples initiative petition. It decided consistent with prevailing jurisprudence in Santiago vs. COMELEC, providing predictability, consistency, and stability to our legal system and the rule of law in our country.

Although the people have been given by the Constitution the power to directly propose amendments to the Constitution, the dubious way by which the present peoples initiative was orchestrated, largely through the barangay assemblies, is indeed very disturbing. That is why a sound enabling law for the implementation of the exercise of this right, one that would protect the people from the manipulative scheming of the powerful, must be passed by Congress at the soonest possible time.

Senator Richard J. Gordon, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments, Revision of Codes and Laws, earlier filed Senate Bill No. 2247, entitled An Act Providing for a System of Peoples Initiative Proposing Amendments to the Constitution, on which he conducted a committee hearing last August 29, 2006. He vows to pass a sufficient, sound, and suitable enabling law to provide for the implementation of the right of the people to directly propose amendments to the Constitution through peoples initiative.