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Sigaw ng Bayan, the main proponent of the failed people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution, will launch a new wave of signature gathering for a shift to a unicameral parliamentary system of government.

The signature drive will start in July as soon as the new set of local officials assumes office, Charter change advocate Raul Lambino said yesterday.

Newly elected city mayors and governors are expected to support the signature drive, Lambino said, citing the assurance given by League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) president Ramon Guico, who won in his re-election bid for mayor in Binalonan, Pangasinan.

“We will campaign for the complete overhaul of the electoral system and go back to a more accountable political system,” Lambino told The STAR.

The new petition will call for the abolition of Malacañang and Congress and will pave for a new unicameral parliamentary system that will be composed of district, regional and party-list representation all over the country, said Lambino, who organized the party-list Banat or Barangay Association for National Advancement of Transparency that ran in the May 14 elections. As of 7:00 last night, Banat has yet to break into the top 20 of the party-list elections, according to the official partial tally of the Commission on Elections.

To avoid the same mistake in the failed initiative last year, Lambino said they will comply with the all legal steps as provided for in the Supreme Court ruling on the manner the signature campaign would be carried out.

“We want no more legal obstacles,” he stressed.

Last November, the Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision junking the people’s initiative, saying it was unconstitutional.

The justices also cast doubt on the legitimacy of the six million signatures the petitioners claimed to have gathered supporting the move.

The court however said that Republic Act 6735 or the Initiative and Referendum Act is “sufficient and adequate to amend the Constitution through a people’s initiative.”

The High Court also said the proposed people’s initiative is a revision and not an amendment, and as such it violated the Charter limiting the scope of a people’s initiative to “amendment to this Constitution.”

Lambino said that with the support of the local government executives, they expect to get the same number they had last year of about nine million signatures – almost double the constitutional requirement of 5.16 million, or 12 percent of the total voting population and representing over three percent of all voters in each of the 213 congressional districts in the country.

He said the “new clamor” for Charter change came directly from the local chief executives who were disappointed with the manner the recently concluded elections were carried out all over the county.

Lambino said even those who won want a new system that will allow the people to cast their votes free from any pressure or intimidation from the political leaders in their localities.

If their petition prospers, the election of members of parliament will be on May 2, 2010.

“There will be no more extension of term or the creation of an interim parliament, Malacañang and Congress will be merged together as the executive and lawmaking body of the government,” Lambino explained.

Under the parliamentary unitary system, the prime minister will become the head of government with members of parliament of the majority party holding the Cabinet posts. – Perseus Echeminada