The Supreme Court (SC) will hear on Tuesday noon the oral arguments on the petitions questioning the constitutionality of the law that deferred the 2011 Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections to 2013. The ARMM polls were supposed to have been held on Monday, August 8. However, Republic Act No. 10153 (RA 10153) synchronized the polls with the May 2013 mid-term elections. In the ARMM polls, voters in the autonomous region choose their regional governor, vice governor, and members of the Legislative Assembly. The direct petitioners and respondents in the seven petitions are the following:
The group led by Datu Michael Abas Kida versus the Senate of the Philippines, et al., Basari D. Mapupunta versus Commission on Elections chair Sixto Brillantes, et al., House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman versus Executive Sec. Paquito Ochoa Jr., et al., Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal versus the Comelec, et al. Louis Biraogo versus Comelec, et al., and Jacinto Paras versus Ochoa, et al. First issue The SC has directed the parties to discuss whether the passage of RA 10153 violated Section 26(2) of the 1987 Constitution. The constitutional provision reads: "No bill passed by either House shall become a law unless it has passed three readings on separate days, and printed copies thereof in its final form have been distributed to its Members three days before its passage, except when the President certifies to the necessity of its immediate enactment to meet a public calamity or emergency." "Upon the last reading of a bill, no amendment thereto shall be allowed, and the vote thereon shall be taken immediately thereafter, and the yeas and nays entered in the Journal," it added. Second issue The parties will likewise discuss if Section 2 of RA 10153 and Section 1 of Republic Act No. 9333 constitute an amendment of Section 7, Article XVIII of Republic Act No. 9054, the Act to Expand the Organic Act for the ARMM. Section 2 of RA 10153 sets the ARMM polls to the second Monday of May 2013 and that succeeding regular elections in the autonomous region will be held on the same date every three years thereafter. Section 1 of RA 9333 has set the conduct of the ARMM elections on the second Monday of August 2005 and that succeeding regular elections in the region will be held on the same date every three years thereafter. In other words, RA 9333 mandates that the elections should be held on the second Monday of August 2005, 2008, 2011, and so on. On the other hand, Section 7 of Article XVIII of RA 9054 sets the first regular ARMM elections on the second Monday of September 2001. It did not indicate if this succeeding elections should fall on the same date every three years. Third issue The parties will also discuss if Sections 3 to 5 of the law postponing the ARMM polls violated Sections 15, 16, and 18 of Article X of the 1987 Constitution. Sections 3 to 5 of RA 10153 allow the President to appoint officers-in-charge (OICs) for the positions of regional governor, vice governor, and members of the Legislative Assembly. The OICs shall keep their posts "until officials duly elected in the May 2013 elections shall have qualified and assumed office." The petitioners in the case have challenged that the powers allowing the President to appoint OICs violated the sovereignty accorded by the 1987 Constitution to the ARMM. - VVP, GMA News 
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