Verified signatures in So. Leyte lone district reaches 13%

By BONG PEDALINO, (PIA Southern Leyte)
June 24, 2006

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte  – Except the town of Hinunangan, the number of signatures pushing on a people’s initiative to amend the Constitution for the lone Congressional District of Southern Leyte as verified by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) field offices has reached a total of 27,490 individual registered voters as of June 19, 2006, records at the provincial Comelec office showed.

Based on the May 10, 2004 synchronized polls, Southern Leyte province had 209,527 total registered voters, and so the verified signatures represented 13% of the overall total.

The law required at least 3% of the registered voters in every legislative district to have consented by way of affixing their signatures, duly checked by the Comelec, for any people’s initiative move to be considered, but at the national level the rate was raised to 12%.

At the minimum 3% rate, the lone Congressional District of Southern Leyte had to gather only some 6,286 signatures for compliance, but the latest tally had more than quadrupled the basic requirement for a sum of 27,490, or an equivalent of 13%.

The number of identical signatures per local government unit (LGU) was as follows: Bontoc – 3,903; Saint Bernard – 624; San Francisco – 2,292; San Juan – 1,200; San Ricardo – 1,146; Sogod – 484;  Tomas Oppus – 3,586; Hinundayan – 120; Libagon – 724; Liloan – 97; Limasawa – 851; Macrohon – 3,350; Malitbog – 3,565; Padre Burgos – 1,485; Pintuyan – 549; Silago – 761; and Anahawan – 136.

A Clerk at the provincial Comelec texted the Election Registrar of Hinunangan for the outcome in that town, but as this report was written there was still no respond.

For Maasin City, the ongoing tally of verified signatures was 2,617, according to Ronnie Segovia, a personnel at the city Comelec office.  Southern Leyte province consists of 18 towns and one city.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in her speech marking the 108th Independence Day celebration last week, hinted that a day of reckoning on Charter Change was fast approaching.

“Our people will soon be called upon to make a decision that can bring an end to the political deadlocks that have stalled our efforts to take our nation to the next level.

“The choice is for us to make whether we continue to live up to the vision of our national heroes or continue to watch helplessly while our political system degenerates and our economy is trapped in the mire of uncertainty,” she said.