Quezon City (25 October) -- THE SUPREME Court has dismissed the petition filed by pro-Charter change advocates for a people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution.

Voting 8-7, the high tribunal, in its ruling penned by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, upheld its decision on a similar case in 1997 involving the Commission on Elections vs Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

The justices have decided to use Carpio’s dissenting opinion after they were not convinced by Associate Justice Reynato Puno’s argument that there was a sufficient law and that the 1997 Santiago ruling could not be considered a precedent.

Aside from Carpio, the seven other justices who voted against a people’s initiative were Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, Associate Justices Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Romeo Callejo Sr., Alicia Austria-Martinez, Conchita Carpio-Morales, and Adolf Azcuna.

Those who voted for a people’s initiative aside from Puno were Associate Justices Leonardo Quismubing, Renato Corona, Dante Tinga, Cancio Garcia, Presbitero Velasco, and Minita Chico-Nazario.