The Commission on Elections in Mandaue City confirmed on Thursday that it has received People’s Initiative sheets with roughly 35,000 signatures to amend the 1986 Constitution.

Mandaue Comelec election officer Anna Fleur Gujilde said that they received the forms since last week, adding that her office will recount the signatures before issuing a certification to the Comelec en banc regarding the total number of signatures submitted.

Once the Comelec en banc issues an order for verification, the local Comelec office will start to verify the signatures to determine if they were indeed from active registered voters in the city.

Gujilde explained that the form must also contain the specific constitutional changes the signatory wants to amend, which the received PI sheets failed to provide.

To recall, Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes said in an interview that Charter change is timely for better governance but the campaign must be well- explained to the general public.

He also cited the economic reforms that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wanted to implement but needs constitutional amendments.

The People’s Initiative refers to a mode for constitutional amendment provided by the 1987 Philippine Constitution or the act of pushing a national or local initiative allowed by the Philippine Initiative and Referendum Act of 1987 as gathering public votes through mass signature campaign.

Gujilde added that for the PI’s effectiveness, the campaign should gather the signatures of at least 12 percent of the country’s total voting population, which translates to three percent signatures per legislative district nationwide.

There are 236,668 registered voters in Mandaue City during the last October Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections and Gujilde said that based on that figure, there has to be 3,000 valid signatures in Mandaue City.

Meantime, Comelec-7 regional director Atty. Marco Lionel Castillano, in an interview with DAILY TRIBUNE revealed that in Central Visayas it’s Negros Oriental and Cebu that the PI signatures were submitted to the Comelec offices.

“Bohol and Siquijor has not submitted yet including the 3rd district of Negros Oriental. The 1st and 3rd districts of Cebu Province have not yet submitted,” Castillano said.

He added that the Cebu City north and south legislative districts have already submitted while the Lapu-Lapu City lone congressional district has no submission yet.

Recently, Senator Imee Marcos alleged that legislative districts nationwide were given P20 million to buy voter’s signatures and revealed that the money is being released through various government programs, particularly cash aid distributions.