House Majority Leader and Zamboanga City 2nd district Rep. Mannix Dalipe has welcomed the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) directive to halt all proceedings related to the People’s initiative (PI) movement. In a press briefing on Monday afternoon, Dalipe, a close ally of House Speaker Martin Romualdez, expressed his approval of Comelec’s decision and stated that the House will continue with its legislative tasks while the Comelec conducts its review. This comes after Comelec announced the suspension of PI proceedings in connection with Charter change (Cha-cha) earlier the same day.
Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda had previously announced that PI proponents had already collected the required number of signatures for petition filing to amend the Constitution. The responsibility to validate the signatures, which should account for at least 12 percent of the total registered voters nationwide, lies with Comelec.
While the House supports PI as a means to remove the restrictive economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, it maintains that it is not directly involved with the initiative. It remains to be seen how Comelec’s review of the PI movement will unfold in the coming days.
