Senator Imee Marcos assured the public that the Senate would oppose the people’s initiative allegedly backed by some congressmen to amend the 1987 Constitution.

In a radio interview, Marcos said: ''We are clearly against their PI. We will not allow bribery. We will not allow the selling of signatures. We will not allow public funds to be used to buy positions or term extensions and other proposals to amend provisions to enable no limit on terms,'' Marcos told dzBB Sunday.

''I do not want them to be vote-buying or taking advantage of the ignorance and the poverty of our people,” added Marcos, chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms.

Marcos has set a Senate hearing on constitutional amendments on Tuesday.

Marcos emphasized that Charter change was not part of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s priority bills which are listed in the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

“The fact is, Charter change has never been part of LEDAC…where all the priority measures of the government are listed. All of the important bills are there. The President did not say it was important,” she said.

Marcos added that some congressmen were just creating more problems instead of focusing on more important issues such as the rising prices of gasoline, the discussion of Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites, and the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program.

“All of these are real problems while this (people’s initiative) is a made-up problem. It’s like, have we run out of problems? Then, they are also adding politics to this. Rotten politics,” she said.

Senators last week released a manifesto read by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri during a plenary session, stating that the goal of the people’s initiative was to make it easier to amend the Constitution by “eliminating the Senate from the equation”.

In a separate radio interview, Dennis Coronacion, a political analyst, said the push for Charter change has several loopholes from the start because it is being done through People’s Initiative even though it does not have an enabling law.

Coronacion said the argument for Charter change is weak since it is not the real voice of the people.

“They should ask the people is that really their voice? Is that really what they want, to have Charter change when the most important thing to do right now is to continue economic recovery?” he said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS