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The Caucus of Development Non-Government Organization Networks (CODE-NGO) is deeply concerned with the reports of alleged bribery by some officials in their effort to launch a people’s initiative and mobilize support for charter change. 

Earlier this week, several lawmakers sounded the alarm that some local officials were allegedly offering money to secure signatures for a people’s initiative seeking to amend the 1987 Constitution. The said local officials reportedly received funds from undisclosed sources to mobilize their constituents for a nationwide people’s initiative. In some localities, these operations were allegedly done in the guise of government-funded financial assistance programs.

In a letter to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, Atty. Christian Monsod, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, said the move, which aims to change the manner by which Congress can revise the charter, is expected to diminish the power of the Senate over proposed constitutional amendments. Should this attempt prosper, it would make it easier for the Lower House to comply with the constitutional requirements for charter change.

We recognize the right of the people to conduct initiatives, as enshrined in the Constitution and enabled in the Initiative and Referendum Act. However, such a process must be deliberate, voluntary, and participatory. A people’s initiative should reflect real public clamor resulting from the exercise of our free will, without any expectation of material gains and fear of intimidation or reprisal.  

We assert that the government’s financial assistance programs should be implemented with impartiality, devoid of any kind of personal and political motivation. These programs belong to the people, as these are directly funded by public money. The application of conditions in some of these programs, such as in the case of conditional cash transfers, are valid only to the extent of ensuring behavioral changes and personal investments to improve one’s social and economic situation.

CODE-NGO, as an advocate of active citizenship, good governance, and political integrity, enjoins the Filipino public to be vigilant in the face of these supposed attempts to debase the dignity of our democratic processes and institutions. Constitutional change must be done in accordance with the will of the people and not the caprices of the few. At the same time, we urge the members of Congress to act conscientiously on this sensitive matter and focus on other pressing social, political, and economic concerns. 

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