Palace may have to choose from among ARMM candidates

MANILA, Philippines—If it has to, Malacañang will have to choose whom to back in the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao from among the people who have already filed their candidacies, if the elections push through as scheduled in August, an aide to President Benigno Aquino III said Wednesday.

While Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. pointed out that the Palace’s preference was for the ARMM elections to be deferred until May 2013, he admitted on Wednesday that the Palace was preparing for alternatives in the event the Senate fails to pass a bill postponing the elections.

“I don’t think we have any other option but to pursue the elections because we are also so pressed for time,” Ochoa told reporters at the Villamor air base in Pasay City after he and other Cabinet officials saw President Aquino off to a two-day visit to Brunei.

“So if [the ARMM postponement bill] dies in the Senate, then the option is for the Commission on Elections to proceed,” he added.

Asked whether the Palace would field its own candidates in the elections in what is supposedly an autonomous region, Ochoa noted that the deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy already lapsed last week.

“If we were to pick one to support, we will be bound by the list of those who filed,” he said.

Pressed as to whether the administration would support the President’s aunt Margarita “Tingting” Coujangco, who is running for ARMM vice governor, Ochoa said: “That is part of the discussion. I don’t want to preempt the President.”

Time is running out on the bill to postpone the ARMM elections in the Senate. Congress is set to adjourn sine die on June 9 but the Senate has yet to begin plenary debates on the ARMM measure.

Earlier, President Aquino indicated he could not support his aunt’s candidacy because he was pushing for the deferment of the ARMM elections to make them coincide with the national mid-term elections in May 2013.

Coujangco is married to the President’s uncle, Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, younger brother of his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino.