Press Release
October 26, 2006

KIKO ON THE SUPREME COURT'S DISMISSAL
OF PEOPLE'S INITIATIVE

"The Supreme Court's dismissal of the People's Initiative petition is a reassurance that the judiciary remains a bastion of check and balance of its co-equal branches of government."

"We have maintained from the beginning that the People's Initiative is an illegal petition employing patently unconstitutional means. Once again, the High Court boldly upheld the provisions of our fundamental law. The Supreme Court rightfully recognized that initiative is an option made available to our people by no less than the Constitution. It even went further to say that, " This Court trusts the wisdom of the people even if the members of this Court do not personally know the people who sign the petition." But the Court well knew th e underlying principle behind a people's initiative that it must be "directly proposed by the people" who are well informed and who understand "a petition that contains the full text of the proposed amendments." Truly, we cannot dilute this constitutionally-granted power of our people by "deceptive and misleading" means of charter change. The Sigaw ng Bayan petition failed to show the people the full text of the amendment they are supposedly proposing. Moreover, the petition deviously and illegally attempted to introduce revisions, and not mere amendments through initiative."

"With this welcome development, we can now take a breather and look forward to elections as the appropriate venue for people's sentiments to be heard and an opportunity to stabilize and confront the issues of the past that were left hanging. We must unite as a people and move on."

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