RAUL L. LAMBINO and ERICO B. AUMENTADO v.

COMELEC

Petitioners Lambino and Aumentado (Lambino Group) with other groups, commenced gathering
signatures for an initiative petition to change the 1987 Constitution. On August 2006, the Lambino
Group filed a petition with the COMELEC to hold a plebiscite that will ratify their initiative petition
under the Initiative and Referendum Act.

The Lambino Group alleged that their petition had the support of 6,327,952 individuals constituting
at least 12% of all registered voters, with each legislative district represented by at least 3% of its
registered voters. The Lambino Group also claimed that COMELEC election registrars had
verified the signatures of the 6.3 million individuals. The Lambino Group's initiative petition
changes the 1987 Constitution by modifying Sections 1-7 of Article VI (Legislative Department)
and Sections 1-4 of Article VII (Executive Department) and by adding Article XVIII entitled
"Transitory Provisions." These proposed changes will shift the present Bicameral-Presidential
system to a Unicameral-Parliamentary form of government.

STATEMENT OF ISSUE/S:
Whether or not the Lambino Group's initiative petition complies with Section 2, Article XVII of the
Constitution on amendments to the Constitution through a people's initiative.

HOLDING: No. The initiative petition does not comply with Sec. 2, Art. XVII of the Constitution on
Direct Proposal by the People that allows a people’s initiative to propose amendments to the
Constitution. The framers of the Constitution intended that the draft of the proposed constitutional
amendment should be ready and shown to the people “before” they sign such proposal. The
framers plainly stated that “before they sign there is already a draft shown to them.” The framers
also “envisioned” that the people should sign on the proposal itself because the proponents must
prepare that proposal and pass it around for signature.

The essence of amendments directly proposed by the people through initiative upon a petition is
that the entire proposal on its face is a petition by the people. This means two essential elements
must be present. First, the people must author and thus sign the entire proposal. No agent or
representative can sign on their behalf. Second, as an initiative upon a petition, the proposal must
be embodied in a petition.