Do officials of the Department of Interior and Local Government really have nothing to do with the people's initiative for Charter change?

It has been DILG officials in Negros Occidental asking, in some cases demanding, that the Commission on Elections give them the list of voters for the people's initiative, COMELEC provincial supervisor Daisy Real said yesterday.

Real also said that, in many instances, barangay officials are involved in the gathering of signatures for the people's initiative.

Real said sometime in the first week of March, DILG Provincial Director Ma. Jose Maredith Madayag had approached her to ask for the provincial voters list for the people's initiative.

Real said she informed Madayag that the COMELEC did not have the budget to produce the whole list that would involve the use of 150 boxes of computer paper, and that she would have to find out from their head office if a certification fee would be charged the DILG for the reproduction.

"I was informed that there was no exception to the certification charged those asking for voters lists," she said.

Real said Madayag told her that the DILG did not have the budget for the purpose so she advised her to coordinate with local executives for the lists.

Madayag last night, however, said she had asked for the lists of voters for the towns and cities of Negros Occidental for the barangay assemblies held on March 25, and not for the people's initiative. She said they needed the lists since registered voters are members of the assemblies.

She insisted that the DILG officers in the province have nothing to do with the people's initiative for charter change.

Real said some DILG officers demanded that the COMELEC give them copies of the voters' lists and even set deadlines.

In fact, she said, one DILG official who had gone to a COMELEC office had a verbal tussle with an election assistant on the matter.

Real said she brought the matter to the attention of Madayag. "When they make request they should ask properly and not demand. There should be inter agency coordination," she said.

Real said verification of signatures of voters in support of the people initiative was being conducted as of yesterday in one city and six towns in the province.

The signatures submitted were from Escalante City, and Calatrava, La Castellana, Isabela, Pulupandan, Binalbagan and Cauayan towns, she said.

She said no deadline has been set by their head office for the completion of the verification proceedings.

The Arroyo administration is pushing for a shift from a presidential to a unicameral parliamentary form of government through charter change.*CPG

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