SC junks petition challenging postponement of ARMM polls

The Supreme Court has dismissed one of the two petitions that sought to block the plan to postpone the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections scheduled in August this year. In a minute resolution issued Tuesday, the high court voted to dismiss the petition of lawyer Alex Macalawi and Abdul Jabbar Awat, who asked the tribunal to prevent House Bill No. 4146 from being enacted into law. The House measure seeks to defer the Aug. 8, 2011 ARMM elections to be synchronized with the May 2013 midterm polls. The high tribunal said the petition of Macalawi and Abat was "premature" because the bill has not been enacted into law yet. Macalawi and Awata have argued that the House bill is "invalid, null and void for enactment as it is contrary to the 1987 Constitution and the Organic Act (for ARMM)." They said the proposed measure would be violative of the 1987 Constitution because it would allow President Benigno Aquino III to appoint interim ARMM officials who would govern the region until the conduct of the elections in 2013. Macalawi and Awat also said that under the Charter, ARMM officials should be elected, not appointed. "House Bill No. 4146 would be violative of the mandate of the Constitution by providing for the appointment of ARMM officials by the president," they said. Second petition still pending The Supreme Court, however, did not yet rule on the other petition that is challenging plan to hold the ARMM polls in 2013. The other petition was 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 2013, but in Sept. 2011, pursuant to the Organic Act of ARMM. They said holding the elections in August 2011 or 2013 will be "violative of the Organic Act of the ARMM, which reset the elections in the ARMM to the second Monday of September." The Senate, which was impleaded among the respondents in the Kida petition, has asked the Supreme Court to junk the pleading for lack of merit. In a 16-page comment, the Office of the Senate Legal Counsel said that House Bill No. 4146 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. "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. — Sophia Dedace/RSJ/KBK, GMA News