SC rebuffs Aquino

Stops synchronized ARMM polls

THE Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday stopped President Benigno Aquino 3rd from appointing new officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as it issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the implementation of a law synchronizing the ARMM elections with the 2013 national polls.

Incumbent ARMM officials whose terms will expire on September 30 will stay in their posts in a holdover capacity while the High Tribunal deliberates on several petitions stopping the 2013 ARMM elections.

Eight justices voted to issue the TRO during an en banc session. Four justices were against it— Antonio Carpio, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin and Maria Lourdes Aranal-Sereno.

The majority of the magistrates gave credence to the petition of stakeholders questioning Republic Act 10153, which allows the synchronization of the ARMM polls with the 2013 polls.

According to Court Administrator and SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez, the TRO shall be effective indefinitely. He said while the tribunal is deliberating on the merits of the case, ARMM officials will remain in office until their successors are elected.

President Aquino was supposed to announce officers-in-charge for ARMM before he leaves for the United States next week. But with the ruling, the list of selected OICs will not be known until the High Court lifts the TRO.

There are seven petitions pending before the Supreme Court questioning the postponement of the ARMM polls.

The petitioners are led by Kida of the Maguindanao Federation of Autonomous Irrigators Association Inc., Hadji Muhmina Usman of Tawi-Tawi; Atty. John Anthony Lim from Sulu and other barangay officials and residents from Basilan and Lanao del Sur who accused legislators of tinkering with the dates of the ARMM election.

They pointed out that the ARMM Organic Act or Republic Act 9504 fixes the date of election to the second Monday of September. The petitioners added that an ordinary statute such as RA 9333 could not amend an Organic Act. –JOMAR CANLAS REPORTER, Manila Times