THE signature drive to amend the Constitution through people's initiative (PI) does not mean anything to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), even as pages after pages of signatures are being accepted by the poll body's city and municipal offices.

Chairman George Erwin Garcia on Tuesday said that the acceptance of signature pages is only part of the commission's ministerial duty in accordance with Comelec Resolution 10650 issued on Jan. 31, 2020.

Resolution 10650 sets the rules for the conduct of initiatives on the Constitution and initiatives and referendums on national and local legislation.

"Those signatures are meaningless to us until a formal petition has been filed," Garcia said.

He said that after a formal petition has been filed, the Comelec has to check if the proponent complied with the documentary requirements, which include, among others, a certification on the total number of registered voters nationwide, certification that it got the required 12 percent signature of the total number of voters nationwide and 3 percent of the total number of voters in each of the 254 legislative districts, and certification from the local Comelec that they are sufficient in form and substance.

Also to be attached in the petition, Garcia said, is the provision of the Constitution that will be amended and what needs to be changed, and the most important part of the process is the verification of signatures.

"Being sufficient in form and substance does not mean that the people's initiative is already a go. It is not," the poll chief pointed out. "The most important part is the [Comelec's] verification of the submitted signatures [from all 254 legislative districts]."

The verification process will determine if the signatories are registered voters if the signatures are the same as those in the voter registration, and if they are still alive.

Fraudulent signatures will be removed from the signature pages, and if it is determined that a particular legislative district failed to meet the mandated 3 percent requirement, the petition will be dismissed.

"All 254 legislative districts must meet the 3 percent requirement. Otherwise, the petition would be dismissed," Garcia said.

No choice but comply

Reacting to election lawyer Romulo Macalintal's statement that the poll body should stop accepting the signature pages as there is no formal petition filed yet, Garcia said they have to comply with Comelec Resolution 10650 and Republic Act 6735, the law that provides for a system of initiative and referendum.

Macalintal believed that Comelec's acceptance "gives a wrong impression to the people that an initiative to amend the charter has already been properly or validly initiated."

"The Comelec has no choice. It is our ministerial duty. Everything is preliminary; there is no formal petition yet filed before the Comelec. Therefore, we have no jurisdiction technically to assume that there is a people's initiative," Garcia said.

"If it is not in the rules, why should we accept those signature pages? It is only an added job [for] us. But it is in the guidelines, and until and unless the guidelines are changed, we have to implement the guidelines," he added.

Let Comelec do its job

Amid questions on the poll body's acceptance of the signatures for the peoples' initiative to amend the charter, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Tuesday that it is up to the Comelec to validate the signatures.

"We will just let the Comelec do their job, do their work to validate the signatures, and if there's suspicion [of payoff], and there is, that signature will not be counted," Marcos said in a chance interview.

He added that he considered suspending aid distribution so that the government would not be questioned, but discontinuing such services would affect many Filipinos.

"When the signature is paid for, the Comelec will not accept it. Nothing will happen there. What I know is there was nothing like that. What is being said is there was no cash, but there were promises of benefits," Marcos said.

The President's sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, who chairs the Committee on Electoral Reforms and People's Participation, filed Senate Resolution 902 seeking to investigate, in aid of legislation, the alleged payoffs and misrepresentations in the signature campaigns.

So far, the poll body said at least 884 cities and municipalities have received several pages of signatures for the people's initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution.

Meanwhile, labor coalition Nagkakaisa condemned on Tuesday a Senate resolution seeking to amend the 1987 Constitution.

"Leading the charter change dance this time is totally unnecessary and out of step for the Senate," the group said in a statement on Tuesday, a week after the Senate majority, led by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, filed a resolution in the filing of Resolution of Both Houses 6 (RBH 6), that sought to amend economic provisions of the charter through a constituent assembly.

Members of the labor coalition protested outside the gates of the Senate and urged Zubiri and the senators to "redirect focus to the pressing demands of workers, including a wage hike, an end to labor contractualization and employment guarantees to address the chronic jobs crisis in the country."

Among the concerns the group raised was the proposed P150 across-the-board wage hike.

"Zubiri made significant promises to workers last year, vowing to enact a P150 across-the-board wage hike," Sentro ng Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa secretary general Josua Mata said.