The postponement of the Aug. 8 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) continues to face stiff opposition.
On Monday, Muslim leaders, a political party and an election lawyer asked the Supreme Court to nullify and declare as unconstitutional Republic Act No. 10153 which cancelled next month’s elections and synchronized it with the 2013 national elections.
Former Tawi-Tawi Gov. Almarim Centi Tillah, professor Datu Casan Conding Cana and PDP-Laban president Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III asked the high court to declare the act “unconstitutional and invalid” and stop Malacañang from using government funds to implement it.
The PDP-Laban party was poised to field candidates for the elections, including President Aquino’s aunt, Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco.
Less than hour after PDP-Laban filed its petition, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal filed his own plea seeking a temporary restraining order against RA 10153 and urging the high tribunal to conduct a special raffle of the case ahead of today’s full court session.
In their separate petitions, Pimentel and Macalintal echoed the same arguments against RA 10153.
They said the law violates the Constitution which ensures the sovereignty of the ARMM and also goes against the ARMM Organic Act which created the special region.
They said that any changes in the Organic Act should be done through a plebiscite.
They also said that any appointment by President Aquino of officers in charge of the ARMM —a power granted under RA 10153—would be an “encroachment of the political autonomy of the ARMM.”
Tillah and his group said in their petition that it was “an unwarranted substitution of the judgment of the people of the region as to who should govern them, thereby effectively breaching the Constitution wall that merely gives the President the power of general supervision only, not control, over the autonomous region.”
Macalintal said the postponement of the ARMM elections set a “dangerous precedent.”
“Next time, any reason could be given just to postpone the elections. If they are able to do it with the ARMM elections, which is against the law, then what will happen in 2013 and 2016?” Macalintal said.