INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The Supreme Court has upheld the 2019 plebiscite that included Cotabato City in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARRM). In an en banc session in Baguio City on Tuesday, the high court ruled that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) complied with the requirements of the Bangsamoro Organic Law in conducting a plebiscite. The decision emphasized the constitutional mandate of the Comelec to guarantee the proper exercise of the right of suffrage “which the Supreme Court will not interfere with if there is no grave abuse of discretion.” The tribunal’s decision stemmed from the petition for certiorari, prohibition and mandamus, with application for a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction filed by Amil Sula, Gaspar Asi and Hussein Malik Sr. on Feb. 28, 2019, against the Comelec, in its official capacity as the National Plebiscite Board of Canvassers. In dismissing the petition, the high court said the petitioners failed to substantiate with the necessary evidence their allegations of fraud in the conduct of the plebiscite. Minister of the Interior and Local Government Naguib Sinarimbo, also the BARMM spokesperson, welcomed the ruling. “We are happy that the SC affirmed the popular will of our people,” he said. —TINA G. SANTOS AND BONG S. SARMIENTO