ARMM stakeholders to air concerns over polls

The consultations this weekend with the people of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will address the concerns of stakeholders over the plan to postpone the ARMM elections, Malacañang said Wednesday. The House committees on Muslim affairs and suffrage will hold public consultations in Zamboanga and Cotabato this Saturday and Sunday. The ARMM poll postponement was one of the priority bills President Benigno Aquino III presented to the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council last month. The President would like to synchronize the ARMM elections, scheduled for Aug. 8, 2011, with the 2013 national mid-term polls. At a press briefing Wednesday, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told reporters that Malacañang is confident that the people favor government’s plan to postpone the elections. He was replying to a reporter’s query. “My understanding is that there is a huge clamor for postponement and they wanted the elections to be synched with the 2013 elections. Having said that, the President said na “siyempre kailangan natin i-address iyong concerns nila, ng stakeholders ng ARMM," he said. Based on President Aquino’s meeting with ARMM lawmakers last week, only one or two congressmen prefer to push through with the elections, he added. “The majority of the Muslim congressmen that were present during the meeting with the President have voiced their agreement with postponing the elections. Again, this is for purposes of synchronizing with 2013 elections to prevent the aberration of command votes," Lacierda said. The House committees provided two days for the consultations “para ma-address lahat ng concerns ng mga stakeholders (to address all stakeholders’ concerns)," according to the Palace spokesperson. “Ang mahalaga dito, sabi ni Pangulo, pag-usapan niyo and konsultahin niyo ang mga stakeholders ninyo sa ARMM (What’s important here, the President said, talk about this and consult with your stakeholders in ARMM)," he said. Lacierda denied the notion that President Aquino wanted to buy time by postponing the elections so he could position his allies in the region. “It was very clear in the meeting that the President suggested you come up with the process, you come up with the qualifications and criteria, and we will all abide by that," Lacierda said. So the President made it very clear that it is going to be participatory, it’s going to be democratic, it will be decided by the stakeholders themselves," he added. — VS, GMA News