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By Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter
Malacañang has sent a letter to lawmakers
certifying as urgent a bill that seeks postponement of scheduled
elections in an autonomous region in southern Philippines, Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Wednesday.
Leaders of the House of Representatives received
early Wednesday the presidential certification for the bill calling
for the deferment of the August 11 polls in the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
It was learned that House Speaker Prospero
Nograles Jr. confirmed that he had received the certification, which
he said was signed by President Gloria Arroyo on Tuesday night.
Nograles also on Wednesday said the House
leaders will fully support President Arroyo’s push for the
postponement of the ARMM elections to pave the way for the signing
of a peace agreement between the government and Muslim rebels.
The House Speaker, during a press conference,
said the nine lawmakers from the autonomous region had declared
total backing for the government’s move to reset the regional
voting.
Nograles said Malacañang had asked Congress to
pass a resolution resetting the scheduled ARMM elections.
He added that he expects that a bill on the
deferment will be read on the floor for it to be transmited to the
House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms headed by Rep.
Teodoro Locsin of Makati City.
House Bill 4832, filed on July 24 by five
lawmakers, proposes to amend Section 1 of Republic Act 9333—the
law that set the August 11 polls in the autonomous region — by
making the scheduled voting coincide with the May 2010 national
elections.
Its authors were Lanao del Sur Representatives
Faysah Dumarpa and Pangalian Balindong, Maguindanao Rep. Simeon
Datumanong, Sulu Rep. Munir Arbison and Rep. Mujiv Hataman of Anak
Mindanao party-list.
Rep. Yusoph Jikiri, also of Sulu, and Rep. Nur
Jaafar of Tawi-Tawi are said to also support the postponement.
Earlier, the House leadership failed to get the
backing for the bill of the 59 members of the so-called Mindanao
bloc.
In the Senate, Juan Miguel Zubiri said also on
Wednesday that the failure to postpone the ARMM elections should not
stop the peace talks with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF).
“The good faith shown by the government should
be enough for the peace talks to continue,” the senator added.
The MILF had asked the government to defer the
regional polls to facilitate the peace negotiations. The talks
include the MILF proposal to expand the territory of the ARMM beyond
the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and
Tawi-Tawi.
“The government can claim that it had tried
its best to postpone the elections and had done so in good faith.
The leaders of MILF should understand the predicament faced by the
executive in failing to grant the MILF request,” Zubiri said.
He was originally identified by Malacanang as
the one who would file the Senate version of the bill postponing the
ARMM voting and to hold it simultaneously with the 2010 presidential
elections.
“I, too, want peace in Mindanao, but it should
be achieved through dialogue and consensus-building without
suppressing the people’s sovereign will,” Zubiri stressed.
He desisted from filing the bill after noting
that an overwhelming majority of senators are against it. Sen.
Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Revision of
Codes and Laws, is one of those who opposed the postponement of the
ARMM polls. Any bill filed in the Senate on electoral matters should
pass through Gordon’s committee.
Zubiri said he had also received telephone calls
from governors, mayors and even ARMM candidates urging him not to
file the bill deferring the regional elections. He added that the
candidates had already spent millions of pesos in their campaign and
they want the polls to proceed as scheduled.
“The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is
ready for the August 11 elections. It had spent close to a billion
pesos that would be wasted if the elections are postponed,” Zubiri
said.
He argued that even if he had filed the bill,
there would have been no material time for Congress to pass it.
Zubiri pointed out that there are only three session days left
before August 11, and this would not be enough to conduct public
hearings, sponsor the bill on the floor and then hold a bicameral
meeting, if needed.
“Even if it will be certified as urgent and
Congress passes it within three session days and it is immediately
signed into law by President Arroyo, it can be effective only 15
days after it has been published in a newspaper of national
circulation,” he explained.
Gordon and Senate Minority Leader Aquilino
Pimentel Jr. had said the ARMM elections should proceed as scheduled
because they were meant as a dry run for the automation of the 2010
polls.
The Comelec had said it was confident that with
automation, the results of the ARMM elections would be known within
two hours from the closing of the polls.
-- Sammy Martin and Efren L. Danao
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