SC asked to junk petition challenging ARMM polls' postponement

The Senate has asked the Supreme Court to junk a petition challenging the plan to defer the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections scheduled this August. In a 16-page comment, the Office of the Senate Legal Counsel said that House Bill No. 4146 — which seeks to postpone the ARMM elections to August 2013 — has not been enacted into law yet. Thus, a justiciable controversy does not yet exist and the pending legislation is still not ripe for judicial determination, the Senate said. "One thing is clear, however, before HB No. 4146 becomes a law through the legislative process as laid down in the Constitution and under the Rules of both House of Representatives and respondent Senate, it cannot be the basis for the postponement of ARMM Elections to 2013. At this point in time, therefore, the issue on the legality of HB No. 4146 is not a justiciable controversy because HB 4146 is not yet a law. Nor is the issue on HB No. 4146 ripe for judicial determination," the Senate said. It added that the Senate counterpart of the House measure, Senate Bill No. 2756, has not yet been approved because it has not yet passed the three readings as required by the Charter. The Senate likewise argued that the Commission on Elections did not commit grave abuse of discretion in setting the date of the ARMM polls to Aug. 8, 2011. It explained that the Comelec only slated the elections to such date because Republic Act No. 9333 mandates that the ARMM polls should be held on the second Monday of August every three years. HB 4146 provides for the deferment of the ARMM elections to 2013 while SB 2756 provides for the synchronization of the elections and the term of office of the elective officials of the ARMM with those of the national and other local officials, thus, amending Republic Act No. 9333. The Senate's comment was in response to the petition filed by a group led by Datu Michael Abas Kida, representing the Maguindanao Federation of Autonomous Irrigators Inc. The group said the ARMM elections should not be conducted on August 8 this year or even in August 2013, but on the first Monday of September 2011, citing the Expanded Organic Act of ARMM. But in its comment, the Senate said that the Expanded Organic Act's provision for the holding the elections on the first Monday of September only applies to the ARMM polls in 2001. "The Expanded Organic Act clearly did not specify when the subsequent elections for ARMM officials, i.e. after 2001, should take place. Said provision of the law did not specifically state that elections of ARMM officials should be held every three years thereafter on the second Monday of September," the Senate said. — RSJ, GMA News