HOUSE Speaker Jose C. de Venecia Jr. said he is not inclined to support the no election proposal by the Consultative Commission (Concom) due to conflict of interest.

He said the people will become suspicious if he and other members of Congress will endorse the proposal which will benefit them and other incumbent officials.
De Venecia told newsmen however that they are willing to throw this question to the people in the plebiscite to be conducted sometime in June that will ratify the amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

A similar view was aired by former President Fidel V. Ramos during a luncheon-meeting with political and civic leaders and at the Star Plaza Hotel last Friday.

“My proposal is, we let the people decide so nobody will accuse me, the Consultative Commission and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (of having a conflict of interest,” said de Venecia.

He said this might form part of two questions to be asked the people in the referendum or plebiscite to be conducted.

Clarifying that he is for the holding of 2007 elections, de Venecia said it is better that the people are asked themselves if they favor the postponement of the elections.

De Venecia, however, said that if there is going to be an election in 2007 and the proposal is to make the term limits of elected officials to five years, the next elections would be in 2012.

This, he said, would not be synchronized with the other elections again, considering that there is going to be elections too for barangay officials and sangguniang kabataan officials.

He said that the cost of one election is P35 billion, of which from P5 to P6 billion will be needed by the Commission on Elections to run the elections, and the rest to be spent by the candidates in their campaigns.

He also said there is also need to cleanse the Commission on Elections and its computerized equipment put in place, not only in Manila but in the different regions.