TACLOBAN CITY — Proponents of the People’s Initiative to change the Constitution have gathered over one million signatures in Eastern Visayas with a few municipal election officers still to submit their report.

According to Commission on Elections regional director Jose Nick Mendros, as of Monday, election officers have received a total of 1,008,664 signatures all over the region which is equivalent to 18.37 percent of the 5,490,817-total number of registered voters as of the last election.

Of the six provinces comprising Eastern Visayas, all the cities and municipalities in Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar and Southern Leyte have submitted signatures, along with 19 out of 24 towns in Northern Samar and five out of eight in Biliran.

Mendros said the proponents of the signature campaign have been issued a certification as to the number of signatures they gathered, adding that all the signatures will be sent to the office of the clerk of the Comelec central office to determine whether the congressional districts meet the minimum number of signatures to call for a Charter change.

However, Mendros clarified that the gathered signatures will still have to undergo the verification process whether they match with the voter’s signature during registration.

“Once the clerk signifies that all the districts meet the minimum number of signatures, the Comelec en banc will issue an order to all election officers to conduct a verification. That’s the only time that we will start the verification of signatures,” Mendros said.

“The result of the verification will be the basis whether Comelec will grant the petition to conduct a People’s Initiative,” he added.

The Comelec official also said that his office has not received any report of bribery in exchange for the signatures.