Pimentel to challenge postponement of ARMM polls before SC

(Updated 4:12 p.m.) Former Senate President Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr. on Thursday vowed to challenge before the Supreme Court (SC) the bill postponing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections once it is signed into law. "I am from Mindanao and a good number of Muslim leaders have asked me to help them. [We will be challenging this] for the Moro people," Pimentel said during the weekly forum at the Senate. Pimentel, who was also the principal author of the ARMM Organic Law, explained that postponing the ARMM polls originally scheduled for August 8 this year and synchronizing it with the 2013 midterm elections would be encroaching on the autonomy of the region. "The basic argument is that the postponement violates the character and soul of the autonomy that has been granted to the autonomous region," he said. "For Malacañang to say that they will determine when the election should be [held], in effect Malacañang is depriving the people to express their will through elections as mandated by the law," he added. Pimentel, who served as Senate president from November 2000 to June 2001, said they will also challenge the President's right to appoint officers-in-charge for the 26 soon-to-be vacated seats in the region. "The appointment of OICs cuts to the very heart of the right of the peple to elect their leaders," he said, adding that incumbent officials were previously allowed to stay when the ARMM polls were postponed in the past. Malacañang, meanwhile, is confident that the SC will uphold the ARMM poll postponement law. "Our position is defensible before the Supreme Court. ARMM elections have been postponed before. The appointment of OICs is covered by the residual powers of the President," presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a text message Thursday. In a separate text message, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Aquino administration can defend the law if called to do so. "In the same way that we were optimistic that the bill would pass both Houses so that the work of reform in ARMM may start the soonest," she said. Earlier, President Benigno Aquino III said that he will sign the bill seeking to postpone the ARMM elections on June 30, which will also mark his first year in office. Pimentel, however, said that the Palace is deliberately delaying its approval. "It is a deliberate ploy on the part of Malacañang to diminish the possibility of the bills being challenged in the SC," he said. But he said that he and his companions are not "dismayed" by this because they are hopeful that the SC will "see through" their arguments. — with Amita O. Legaspi/RSJ/KBK, GMA News