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Senate bill seeks to postpone ARMM polls to 2013


A bill has been filed in the Senate seeking to postpone the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) — originally scheduled this August — to May 2013. Sen. Franklin Drilon filed last Wednesday Senate Bill 2756 calling for the deferral of elections in the region’s five provinces, and giving President Benigno Aquino III the power to appoint officers-in-charge until new officials are elected in 2013. Drilon said postponing the ARMM elections will make the government save up to P1.8 billion, which he said can be used “for urgent social services and physical infrastructures needed in the region." “It is opportune time for the new administration to be more prudent and discerning in its current expenditures… The synchronization will allow for government to reduce its expenditures on the frequent conduct of various elections," the measure read. The bill was filed a day after the House of Representatives approved its version of the measure, which has earlier been certified as urgent by President Aquino. The postponement of the ARMM elections, however, has been opposed by at least three senators —Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Francis Escudero — even before Drilon's bill was filed in the chamber. The bill has already been referred to the Senate Committee on Local Government, chaired by Marcos, and will have to be approved at the committee and on the Senate floor for it to be passed. After this, a bicameral conference committee will be convened to reconcile the respective versions of the House and Senate. Once the bicameral committee approves the bill, it will be returned to the House and Senate for ratification. It will then be submitted to Malacañang for the signature of the President. - KBK, GMA News

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