Law postponing ARMM polls faces more opposition at SC

The opposition to Republic Act No. 10153, the newly-signed law postponing this year's Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections, is starting to snowball before the Supreme Court. On Monday, a group of petitioners led by former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and other Muslim leaders filed with the high court a petition to declare the law as unconstitutional and invalid for supposedly undermining the autonomy that the 1987 Constitution accords to ARMM. RA 10153, which was signed into law on Thursday last week, postponed the Aug. 8, 2011 ARMM elections and synchronized it with the the May 2013 mid-term polls. It would also allow President Benigno Aquino III to appoint officers-in-charge as the region awaits the conduct of its elections in May 2013. The petitioners likewise said that allowing Aquino to appoint OICs is violative of the Charter. "The power given by RA 10153 to the President to appoint OICs in ARMM is an encroachment of the political autonomy of ARMM, a repudiation of the right of its people to self determination, and an unwarranted substitution of the judgment of the people of the region as to who should govern them, thereby, effectively breaching the Constitution wall that merely gives the Presidetn the power of general supervision only, not control, over the autonomous region," said the petitioners. The petitioners then asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) and other injunctive reliefs to prevent Malacañang from enforcing the law. The Muslim leaders and ARMM residents who trooped to the Supreme Court wore black. "We want to show we are mourning," said Datu Casan Conding Cana in an interview with GMA News Online. Arroyo's ex-lawyer: RA 10153 'sounding the death bell' Later in the day, veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal is expected to file his own petition questioning the legality of RA 10153. Macalintal once served as the poll lawyer of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now Pampanga lawmaker representing the province's second district. In a news advisory, Macalintal said the law is unconsitutional "which is equivalent to sounding the death bell for ARMM autonomy." Macalintal added that the OICs that President Aquino will appoint in the region "are not representatives of voters but representatives of the president to whom they owe loyalty." "The new law still needs approval by the ARMM voters in a plebiscite, hence, [it is] stll inoperative," Macalintal's advisory also said. Lagman first to seek nullification The first to challenge RA 10153 before the high court is House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. Last Thursday, Lagman filed a 76-petition asking the high court to strike down the law for being "unconstitutional and invalid" because it deprives the region of the autonomy accorded by the Constitution. Lagman said the law violates the 1987 Constitution's provisions that ensure the ARMM's autonomy and the provisions of the ARMM Organic Acts. Lagman said RA 10153 "is not effective and enforceable for not having been approved in a mandatory plebiscite required by the Organic Act." He added that postponing the elections would deprive ARMM residents of their autonomy. "Elections are the bedrock of democratic republicanism and any postponement of elections must not be motivated by contrived and partisan reasons," the lawmaker added. He likewise questioned whether the President's enactment of RA 10153 is valid because the Senate was unable to shore up the necessary "two-thirds extraordinary majority vote" that would legitimize the Senate's bill enactment into law. — RSJ, GMA News