The Commission on Elections cannot conduct voter registration and verify signatures in a People’s Initiative petition at the same time for lack of resources, its chairman George Garcia said Sunday.
Garcia told TeleRadyo Serbisyo that voter registration, seen to start in February, will not affect voter count for a prospective petition, but will prove a challenge to the commission if done alongside signature verification.
“Most likely one activity will be sacrificed, the Commission won’t be able to do both, that’s the truth,” he said in Filipino.
In the same interview, Garcia said the Omnibus Election Code does not indicate an offense for signature buying.
The poll body could not prescribe criminal liability for signature-buying and noted that legislation needs to be passed to penalize that, he added.
Lawmakers have raised concerns over alleged government payoffs in a signature drive to amend the 1987 Constitution, without naming the people behind it. Several government agencies have denied the bribery allegations.
Unlike signature buying, vote buying is considered an election offense. Candidates who are proven to have been engaged in vote buying are disqualified by the Comelec.
Garcia said the Comelec plans to hold voter registration activities in public places like malls, which would mean that staff will not be available.
Voter registration will run until September.
While the Comelec will get help from local government units for the registration, the verification must be done by the commission’s own personnel, he said.
Garcia said it is too soon to say how the Comelec will manage the two tasks, since no petition for a people’s initiative has been submitted yet.
In the meantime, local Comelec offices will check signature sheets and watch out for duplicates before issuing a certification on the number of signatures submitted.
Verification will only happen once a petition is submitted to the Comelec and the commission finds it sufficient in form and substance.