{"id":3977,"date":"2012-10-22T17:54:56","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T09:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biliranisland.com\/blogs\/?p=3977"},"modified":"2012-10-22T17:55:36","modified_gmt":"2012-10-22T09:55:36","slug":"comelec-bats-for-peoples-initiative-to-stop-political-dynasties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biliranisland.com\/blogs\/2012\/10\/22\/comelec-bats-for-peoples-initiative-to-stop-political-dynasties\/","title":{"rendered":"Comelec bats for \u2018people\u2019s initiative\u2019 to stop political dynasties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Jocelyn R. Uy<\/p>\n<blockquote data-secret=\"pBoIToybiY\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><p><a href=\"http:\/\/newsinfo.inquirer.net\/293236\/comelec-bats-for-peoples-inititative-to-stop-political-dynasties\">Comelec bats for \u2018people\u2019s initiative\u2019 to stop political dynasties<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" src=\"http:\/\/newsinfo.inquirer.net\/293236\/comelec-bats-for-peoples-inititative-to-stop-political-dynasties\/embed#?secret=pBoIToybiY\" data-secret=\"pBoIToybiY\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" title=\"&#8220;Comelec bats for \u2018people\u2019s initiative\u2019 to stop political dynasties&#8221; &#8212; Inquirer News\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nPhilippine Daily Inquirer<br \/>\n1:39 am | Monday, October 22nd, 2012<\/p>\n<p>The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Sunday said it was powerless to stop political dynasties because Congress had yet to pass an enabling law for the constitutional prohibition.<br \/>\nBut Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said those \u201cannoyed\u201d by them may resort to a \u201cpeople\u2019s initiative\u201d or massive signature campaign to prevent their dominance in the country\u2019s political landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Brillantes over the weekend said it was \u201cimpossible\u201d for the election body to prevent relatives of incumbent officials from seeking government posts in the 2013 elections.<br \/>\n\u201cWe can\u2019t do anything about it,\u201d he said.<br \/>\n\u201cThere is no enabling law that prohibits political dynasties even if it is not allowed under the Constitution,\u201d Brillantes said.<\/p>\n<p>The Comelec chief was apparently commenting on a petition filed in the Supreme Court asking the justices to order the poll body to enforce the constitutional ban on political dynasties in the coming national and local balloting.<br \/>\n\u201cWe can only administer what is provided by law,\u201d Brillantes said.<br \/>\nBut he suggested that those irked by the presence of political dynasties in the government could employ the constitutional  provision on people\u2019s initiative.<br \/>\n\u201cA people\u2019s initiative is the best \u2026 real solution to that problem so that it would no longer have to pass through Congress,\u201d Brillantes said, referring to Republic Act No. 6735, the law on people\u2019s initiative and referendum. \u201cBecause the Congress will not allow that (banning political dynasties) \u2026 they will not do something that will directly affect them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Article 17 Section 2 of the Constitution provides that \u201camendments to the Constitution may likewise be directly proposed by the people through initiative upon a petition of at least 12 percent of the total number of registered voters \u2026 .\u201d Brillantes did not explain what constitutional amendment could be proposed to bypass the need for implementing laws.<\/p>\n<p>In a 24-page petition filed in  the Supreme Court on Friday, a certain Louis Biraogo lamented how patronage politics \u201cbecame the rule in the elections,\u201d and a candidate had no chance at winning if he or she did not belong to a political dynasty.<\/p>\n<p>The petitioner noted that the current candidates for the upcoming midterm elections were the \u201cbest testament to that political and constitutional mockery.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cThe refusal of the government, the Congress in particular, to fulfill the constitutional prohibition against political dynasties has been a continuing insult to the Filipino people. Something must be done about this anomaly,\u201d Biraogo said.<br \/>\nCongress has also been sitting on the implementing rules of the freedom of information provision in the 1987 Constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jocelyn R. Uy Comelec bats for \u2018people\u2019s initiative\u2019 to stop political dynasties Philippine Daily Inquirer 1:39 am | Monday, October 22nd, 2012 The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Sunday said it was powerless to stop political dynasties because Congress had yet to pass an enabling law for the constitutional prohibition. But Comelec Chairman Sixto [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-debate"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biliranisland.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biliranisland.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biliranisland.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biliranisland.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biliranisland.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biliranisland.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biliranisland.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biliranisland.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biliranisland.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}