BARMM governance code can pass legal test — exec

Murad signs BLGC

COTABATO CITY—The leadership of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has welcomed the petition of three provincial governments questioning the constitutionality of the Bangsamoro Local Governance Code (BLGC).

“We acknowledge that the petitioners are all well within their democratic rights as citizens of the country and residents of the autonomous region although the Government of the Day is confident that the version approved by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority Parliament can withstand any legal challenges,” BARMM interim Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim said in a statement sent to the Inquirer.

Ebrahim is also chief of the erstwhile rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which signed a peace deal with the government in 2014.

‘Unconstitutional’

The MILF holds the reins of the BARMM, having 41 nominees in the 80-member interim parliament. It has also allied with some 15 members coming from the Moro National Liberation Front, which entered into a political settlement with the government in 1996.

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The provinces of Sulu, Lanao del Sur, and Maguindanao del Sur had asked the Supreme Court on Feb. 26 to declare as “unconstitutional and invalid” the BLGC for supposedly overstepping the bounds of the country’s charter as well as existing laws.

Among others, the petition assailed the BLGC’s empowering of the Chief Minister to discipline local officials. They also took issue with the code’s antidynasty provisions.

The BLGC has been widely hailed for containing the antidynasty provisions, a measure that even Congress has yet to enact.

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Ebrahim said the legal challenge is proof that democracy is very much alive and vibrant in the BARMM and “that all groups and sectors can participate in nation-building and assert their respective suggestions during the transition period.”

The petition claimed that the BLGC was riddled with provisions that violate the 1987 Constitution, the Local Government Code, the Bangsamoro Organic Law, and the constitutionally guaranteed autonomy of local government units.

“We shall submit to the wisdom of the High Court and will ensure that we comply with whatever their decision is,” Ebrahim said, even as he called on the petitioners to collaborate with the BARMM government.

“We further commit to work closely with the petitioners and figure out measures where all of us can have a space for meaningful collaborations—all for the benefit of our people, our shared cause, and our homeland,” he added. INQ