THE SUPREME COURT DECISION nullifying the creation of Shariff Kabunsuan province could affect government efforts at boosting Muslim Mindanao autonomy, according to six justices in their dissenting opinion.

The minority justices, led by Associate Justice Dante Tinga, believed that Shariff Kabunsuan, which is part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, could remain lumped with Cotabato City as a single legislative district and that Congress may later pass a law to remedy the situation.

On Wednesday, the high tribunal said Congress had the exclusive power to create provinces, which is linked to its power to create or organize legislative districts that would determine the number of members of the House of Representatives.

The majority justices who signed the ruling pointed out that the Constitution provides for one House member for each new province created and every city with a population of 250,000. The Constitution also states that a new district may be created only through a law passed by Congress.

Tinga said the majority decision treated autonomy as ?invisible and inconsequential,? adding that this approach ?will exacerbate political and regional tensions within Mindanao, especially since it shuns the terms of the negotiated peace.?

The minority justices also said they were surprised and disappointed that the national government, through the Office of the Solicitor General, took a stand against the peace agreement reached with the Moro National Liberation Front, which led Congress to pass the organic act that created ARMM and its Regional Assembly.

They said the majority justices also did not bother to hear the sides of the ARMM government and the now-invalidated Shariff Kabunsuan provincial government.

?The people of Shariff Kabunsuan, by sovereign desire and constitutional design, ratified through a plebiscite the province name in honor of the revered figure who introduced Islam to Central Mindanao. The majority [justices have] annihilated the province with nary a word of comfort or concern for its citizens,? Tinga said.

The case stemmed from two petitions that reached the court after the Commission on Elections decided during the 2007 elections to fuse Shariff Kabunsuan and Cotabato City, which is not part of ARMM, into a single district that would elect one member to the House.

The Assembly carved Shariff Kabunsuan in August 2006 out of nine towns comprising the first district of Maguindanao province and included Cotabato City. The act was ratified by local residents in October of the same year.

The minority justices criticized the majority?s depriving the Assembly of its right to create provinces and of treating Congress? powers to create provinces and to create legislative districts as if they were one and the same.

The minority contended that the power to create provinces may be vested in the Assembly while concurrently reserving for Congress the power to form districts.

There is no specific constitutional provision limiting to Congress the power to create provinces, the minority pointed out. Also, they said, Constitution itself assures Muslim Mindanao folk of autonomy.

The minority justices also noted that the Assembly law that formed Shariff Kabunsuan did not provide for the creation of a new district.