The Supreme Court has been asked to dismiss the petition filed by Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan II seeking to declare as unconstitutional Republic Act No. 11054, also known as the Bangsamoro Organic Law.
In a 51-page answer-in-intervention, the Philippine Association of Islamic Accountants, Inc. led by Amanoding Esmail argued that the BOL is far better that the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Refuting the arguments of the petitioner, the PAIA said that Section 18 and 19, Article X of the Constitution do not prevent Congress from passing legislations establishing or strengthening or even abolishing the ARMM and creating a new one.
The petitioner earlier claimed that the BOL violates the 1987 Constitution, particularly Sections 18 and 19, which created the ARMM.
PAIA insisted that there was no legal basis to abolish the ARMM and that if the government wants to do it, it can only be done through amending the Constitution.
The group emphasized that Section 19 can be construed as a mere directive for the first Congress elected under the 1987 Constitution to pass the organic acts for the autonomous regions in Mindanao and the Cordilleras within 18 months from the time of its organization while Section 18 relates to the process of such organic acts.
“Petitioner overreached in opining that the constitutional provisions delimit the legislative power of Congress; it is reading something into the provisions,” the group said.
The PAIA also accused Tan of “overreading” the law in saying that the BOL violates the constitutional principle of separation of power and check and balance.
“In the traditional structure of power in political democracy, separation of power is apportioned between the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary, with the Executive executing the law and seeing to it that the law is faithfully enforced or complied with, the Legislature making the law and defining state policies , and the Judiciary interpreting the law. This political rule underwrites the principle of check and balance. And the BOL, provides for this political arrangement,” the group argued.
The BOL replaces the ARMM with a new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which would have greater fiscal autonomy, a regional government, parliament, and justice system.
The regions would be made up of the Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Basilan, Maguindanao, and Lanao del Sur—the current ARMM members—pending a regional plebiscite.
Also included to be included are six municipalities of Lanao del Norte and 39 villages of Cotabato, and the chartered cities of Isabela and Cotabato subject to the approval of voters.
The Commission on Elections has set the plebiscite on Jan. 21 for the ratification of the BOL.
The PAIA pointed out that the BOL provision that the territorial jurisdiction of ARMM as constituted under Republic Act No. 9054 has to vote as one in the coming plebiscite does not violate the equal protection principle under the Constitution and does not discriminate any province or city of the region in the exercise of their electoral right.
The group also defended the BOL, saying that it was designed to protect the religious minority and was passed in compliance by government of its treaty commitment as a member of the United Nations in relation to the 2007 United Nations Declaration for the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples (UN DRIP).
Lawyers Nasser Marohomsalic and Manuelito Luna joined PAIA’s intervention.