Junking ARMM polls, tapping OICs a slap to Constitution, says lawyer

MANILA, Philippines – Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal has said that the law that created and set the elections for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao apart from the national and local elections does not violate Republic Act 7166 or the Election Synchronization Law of 1991, as one senator has argued.

The actual bases of RA 7166, according to Macalintal, were the transitory provisions in the 1987 Constitution that synchronized national and local polls. At the time the Constitution took effect, however, the ARMM had not yet been created.

On the other hand, the creation of the ARMM through congressional legislation was also mandated in Section 13, Article X of the Charter, Macalintal said. The ARMM was formally created in 1990 after its Organic Act was approved through a plebiscite.

Macalintal argued that the ARMM polls were not covered by the transitory provision providing for the synchronized polls.

“Such election cannot be synchronized as it defeats its being an ‘autonomous government’ and more so because the first election for Congress and local officials under the 1987 Constitution was held in May 1987 and their terms ended in 1992. The first ARMM poll was held on Feb 12, 1990 under its Organic Act,” he explained.

“Thus, what is unconstitutional is to postpone the ARMM polls and appoint officers in charge, which would violate the Charter which mandates that ARMM officials should be elected and not appointed,” he said.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has joined the Senate in asking the Supreme Court to junk a petition seeking to stop Congress from tackling a bill to postpone the Aug. 8 elections in the ARMM and synchronize the exercise with the 2013 mid-term polls.

In a 25-page comment, House’s legal department headed by Leonardo Palicte, on behalf of the House of Representatives, said the Supreme Court should dismiss for lack of merit the complaint of the group of Datu Michael Abas Kida of the Maguindanao Federation of Autonomous Irrigators Inc.

The House said it was premature for the petitioners to challenge the proposal, House Bill No. 4146, because it has not yet become a law. HB 4146 was passed by the House on Mar. 22 but the Senate version, Senate Bill No. 2756, remains pending.

“Whatever issues or arguments that petitioners may put forward against HB 4146 at this time would therefore remain hypothetical. And any constitutional challenge that petitioners may hurl against HB 4146 before it becomes a law therefore must fail for being premature,” the House said.

Kida and company asked the Supreme Court to nullify the two bills as well as Republic Act No. 9333, a 2004 law that set ARMM elections to the second Monday of August in 2005 and every three years thereafter. They said the elections in the ARMM cannot be held on Aug. 8 or even in 2013 because the expanded ARMM Organic Act, RA 9054, set the elections on every second Monday of September—or on Sept. 12 this year.

They reasoned that RA 9333 was invalid because any amendment to the Organic Act must first be ratified in a plebiscite before it could take effect.

The House, however, questioned the timing of the petition and pointed out that two ARMM elections—held in 2005 and 2008—have been conducted without question to their validity.

“In their haste, petitioners failed to consider the fact that they have complacently allowed almost seven years to lapse before contesting the validity of RA 9333,” the House said.

The House said the petition “must not be allowed to prosper as it seeks to diminish the legislative power lodged in the Congress by the Constitution of the Philippines.”

Last month, the Senate filed a similar comment to the Court regarding the petition of Kida’s group.

The Senate contended that the Organic Act’s provision for the holding the elections on the first Monday of September applied only to the ARMM polls in 2001.

“The expanded Organic Act clearly did not specify when the subsequent elections for ARMM officials, i.e. after 2001, should take place. Said provision of the law did not specifically state that elections of ARMM officials should be held every three years thereafter on the second Monday of September,” the Senate said.

The petition of Kida’s group was one of two that challenged the Aquino administration’s plan to move the ARMM polls to 2013. One that sought to prohibit HB 4146 was junked by the Court last week for being premature.