House panels OK postponement of ARMM polls

(Updated 5:55 p.m.) Two committees in the House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a measure calling for the postponement of elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), even after five lawmakers from Mindanao walked out of the hearing. In a 23-4 vote from the House panel on suffrage and electoral reforms and in a 11-0 vote from the House panel on Muslim affairs, the two committees approved in a joint hearing House Bill 4146 deferring the ARMM polls scheduled for August this year to May 2013. Aside from synchronizing the ARMM polls to the May 2013 mid-term elections, HB 4146 also seeks to give President Benigno Aquino III the power to appoint officers-in-charge in the ARMM government until new officials are elected in 2013. Members of the House committees pushed through with the voting despite opposition from seven Mindanao lawmakers, who walked out of the room where the proceedings were being held minutes before the voting. The congressmen who boycotted the vote on the measure were: Sulu Rep. Tupay Loong, Lanao del Sur Rep. Pangalian Balindong, Misamis Occidental Rep. Douglas Cagas, Ang Laban ng Indiginong Filipino (ALIF) party-list Rep. Acmad Tomawis, Tawi-Tawi Rep. Nur Jaafar, Sultan Kudarat Rep. Raden Sakaluran and Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong. "Majority of the Muslim representatives in Congress are against this proposed bill... We have nothing to do with this decision," Jaafar said before walking out. — RSJ, GMA News