Calida asks SC to junk suit seeking to strike down BOL

HE government’s chief counsel has asked the Supreme Court to junk the petition questioning the constitutionality of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).

TIn an 118-page comment to the petition filed in October by Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan seeking to stop the implementation of Republic Act 11054 or the BOL, Solicitor General Jose C. Calida insisted that there is no provision in the Constitution that has been violated by Republic Act 11054, which was signed into law President Duterte last July.

Tan, in his petition, argued that the law violates Sections 18 and 19 of the 1987 Constitution, which created the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

He added that there was no legal basis to abolish the ARMM ,and that if the government wants to do it, it can only be done by amending the Constitution.

However, Calida said the BOL does not violate the said provisions of the Constitution.

He also dismissed Tan’s claim that the BOL should have first gotten the nod of Sulu and other provinces under the ARMM though majority voting as separate units.

“The separate voting requirement provided in Section 18, Article X of the 1987 Constitution applies only to the creation of an autonomous region, not to the amendment of the law, nor to the expansion of its territorial jurisdiction,” Calida said.

Calida pointed out that the BOL did not exact created a new autonomous region but rather it was an amendment of the organic act and expansion of the territorial jurisdiction of ARMM.

“When Congress decides to expand the territory of the autonomous region, the requirement does not apply to the subsisting provinces, cities of geographical areas of the autonomous region, but only to those provinces, cities or geographical areas proposed by Congress to be added therein. A majority of the votes in all constituent units put together is sufficient for those provinces, cities or geographical areas already part of the autonomous region,” the solicitor general said.

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 Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Basilan, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur—the current ARMM members—pending a regional plebiscite.

Also included were 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 for January 21 the plebiscite for the ratification of the BOL.

Furthermore, Calida insisted that the High Tribunal has no power to review the BOL because the issues raised by Tan involved political questions that the court is not permitted to examine under the Constitution.

Named respondents in Tan’s petition were Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea, Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, then Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza and the Bangsamoro Transition Commission and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Calida filed the comment on behalf of the respondents.

A similar petition filed last month by the Philippine Constitutional Association also assailed the constitutionality of the BOL.

The two petitions have been ordered consolidated by the Court.

Meanwhile, a petition-in-intervention is set to be filed on Monday by the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission together with several other individuals to echo their support for the government’s position on the issue.

“The separate voting requirement provided in Section 18, Article X of the 1987 Constitution applies only to the creation of an autonomous region, not to the amendment of the law, nor to the expansion of its territorial jurisdiction.”—Calida