Calls ARMM poll postponement snowball; DOJ says no legal infirmities to move polls

Justice Sec. Leila de Lima

ISLAMIC CITY OF MARAWI, March 15, 2011—The call for the postponement of the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is snowballing with several civil society organizations (CSOs) based in the Islamic City of Marawi joining the call for the synchronization of the ARMM elections with that of the local and 
national elections in 2013.
                This as Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said that there are no legal infirmities to the postponement proposal.
                “I am here to witness democracy and transparency in action, in my capacity as the secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and therefore the attorney general and principal legal adviser of the President,” she said.
                “Based on research and careful analysis, I tell you that I find no legal infirmity on the proposal,” she added.
                De Lima made the statement Saturday (March 12) during the public consultation on House Bill No. 4146 that calls for the synchronization of the ARMM elections with the national and local elections in 2013.
                HB 4146 seeks the postponement of the August 2011 ARMM elections to May 2013 and authorizes President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” C. Aquino III to appoint officers-in-charge (OIC) as caretakers during the interim period.
                “HB 4146 is a reform bill as it addresses electoral reform and I am very happy that the President placed it as one of the priority measures which clearly indicates that ARMM is a priority concern of Malacanang,” said the 
bill’s author, Rep. Bai Sandra A. Sema of Maguindanao.
                The Kabnar (Human Rights) Advocates Inc., issued a resolution strongly recommending and supporting the postponement of the ARMM elections to give way for reforms in the attainment of just and sustainable development in the region.
                Also throwing its support to the synchronization of ARMM elections with the local and national elections in 2013, the Bangsamoro Successors’ Generation Network–Ranaw Youth for Peace and Sustainable Development issued a paper that said that the postponement is “the proper move to initiate reforms in the autonomous region.”
                The postponement will also “provide synergies for the peace process by making ARMM an effective mechanism for basic service delivery,” said the Reform ARMM Now (RAN) in a statement.
                RAN also said the postponement can arrest the declining peace and order situation brought about by the proliferation of arms and increasing incidence of political violence, kidnappings and narco-criminal syndicates and rationalize government expenditure related to elections and focus fiscal priorities for electoral reforms.
                The group also said that the 1987 Constitution provides that all elections for national and local elections shall be synchronized, except for barangays.
                Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo underscored the need to postpone the elections and for the President to appoint OICs citing that ARMM was created to improve the lives of the people in the region. 
                Robredo also noted that after 21 years of autonomy, four out of ARMM’s five provinces are among the poorest in the country.
                Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Chair Luwalhati Antonino also said that the President is determined to make reforms in the region.
                The Islamic Movement for Electoral Reform and Good Governance (IMERGG), headed by Hadji Abdullah “Lacs” Dalidig and Dimapuno “Pangnal” Datu-Ramos, also threw its support to HB 4146.
                Dalidig said that the Bangsamoro people need more good governance, real reforms, and public service than numerous elections marred with vote-buying, fraud, manipulations and violence which can only be facilitated by putting in OIC officials to manage the affairs of the region and move the elections to 2013.
                But another group, the Alliance of Regional Coalitions Against People’s Poverty (ARCAPP) and its Coalitions of Non-Government Organizations and Civil Society, issued a manifesto strongly opposing the postponement of the ARMM elections.
                ARCAPP argued that ARMM was crafted as a mechanism for self-governance to answer the Bangsamoro people’s long decades of struggle. It also noted that ARMM was not handed in a silver platter but was achieved after decades of war where thousands of lives and million-peso properties were lost.
                The group believed that postponing the August 2011 elections will only bring instability in the region and deny its people the right to self-determination while pointing out that the law upholding the Bangsamoro’s 
rights to choose their leaders must be upheld.
                “While we believe in the administration’s desire for peace in ARMM, such cannot compromise our right of suffrage to elect our leaders in a free and honest election,” they said.
                ARCAPP found an ally in Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. and the province’s two congressional representatives who opposed the postponement.
                “The postponement of the ARMM polls is a blatant violation of the constitution as it will take away the right of suffrage of the people in ARMM,” Adiong said, stressing that the right of suffrage is a privilege and a 
human right that the people in the ARMM must enjoy.
                Adiong said that Republic Act 9054 or the Organic Act for the ARMM rendered HB 4146 unconstitutional therefore elections should proceed as scheduled on August 2011.
                Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Hussien Pangandaman said that replacing regularly elected officials with appointed ones is unconstitutional under the RA 9054.
                The Organic Act also strongly provides that the President only has supervisory powers and not control over ARMM, and that PNoy’s putting his hand-picked OICs in the ARMM is a violation of the Act, he added.
                “The postponement is not the penultimate answer to address major reforms in the ARMM.  In the span of 21 years, there has been eight elections postponements in the region to suit political exigencies but problems persist,” argued Rep. Pangalian Balindong of the 2nd District of Lanao del Sur.
                But De Lima explained that HB 4146 will not undermine the democracy and autonomy of ARMM but only strengthen it by putting the necessary electoral reforms.
                She also stressed that the expressed constitutional intent or policy is to synchronize the national and local elections, stressing that the ARMM elections is a local elections.
                She also said that HB 4146 will not amend the Organic Act but only RA 9333, an ordinary law that can be amended by another law. (Bong D. Fabe)

Postponement of ARMM polls “most practical”—Adiong

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Feb. 9, 2011--“It is the most practical alternative  that the national government can adopt.”
                This  was the categorical statement of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Acting  Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong in supporting the calls for the postponement  of the 2011 ARMM elections scheduled in August.
                Adiong  said that issues related to the history of election violence and failures and  on the ongoing peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic  Liberation Front (MILF) as well as the government, 
Organization of Islamic  Conference (OIC) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Tripartite Review of  the 1996 Final Peace Agreement should be fully resolved first before call for  the elections.
                Continuing  with the elections will “only complicate unsolved social issues” such as the  absence of a negotiated political settlement with the MILF, aside from  worsening the conduct of the polls, he said.
                Postponing  the elections, Adiong said, will prevent political violence from erupting in  the ARMM where families and clans are dragged into feuds (locally called rido) that go on for countless years.
                During  the May 2010 national and local elections, eight towns in Lanao del Sur and two  towns in Basilan declared failures of election. Four months later, in what many  believe is election-related, a former mayor of Tugaya, Lanao del Sur was killed  in an ambush. On November 20, 2010, the vice-mayor of Barira, Maguindanao was  gunned down in Davao City. His death is also widely believed as connected to  the recently conducted SK and barangay elections.
                Because  of these election-related violence, scheduled elections in the towns of ARMM  are declared failures, prompting the Commission on Elections to calls for  special elections like the June 23, 2010 elections in 
the seven municipalities  of Lanao del Sur.
                Also,  voters in 178 barangays all over the ARMM were not able to cast their votes on  October 25, 2010 for Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections because of  violence, prompting COMELEC to call for a special elections in theses  barangays.
                Adiong  also called the attention of the government to conduct a study on the perennial  low turn-out of voters, which he attributed to “election fatigue” and massive  vote-buying.
                With  the August ARMM Elections postponed, the most logical and publicly acceptable  means of preserving the integrity of the autonomy of the ARMM is the extension  of the term of incumbent elected officials, he added.
                But Maguindanao Rep. Simeon  Datumanong, former Deputy Speaker for Mindanao and secretary of the Department  of Justice (DOJ) questioned moves to postpone the ARMM elections.
                Datumanong said  that it is specifically stated in Republic Act 9333 that “elections are to be  held in the second Monday of August every three years.”
                Presidential  Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda had earlier said that President Benigno Simeon C.  Aquino III wants the ARMM elections reset to May 2013 for it to be conducted  simultaneously with the national and local 
elections.
                “We need to  synchronize (the ARMM elections with the national and local polls because)  number 1, as we know, ARMM has been a region where there is such a thing as  command votes. It has been manipulated a number of times in the past elections,  that is something that we need to address,” Lacierda said recently.
                The ARMM was created as part of the  government's commitment to the MNLF with whom it signed a final peace agreement  on September 2, 1996. (Bong D. Fabe)