Muslim accountants ask SC to dismiss case against BOL
A group of Muslim accountants and several individuals have joined the government in asking the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss the petition against the constitutionality of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) or Republic Act No. 11054.
In their pleading, the Philippine Association of Islamic Accountants (PAIA) told the SC that the Constitution allows Congress to amend, revise, or strengthen the law that created the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The group, in effect, joined the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), the government’s law firm, which sought the dismissal of the petition filed by the Sulu provincial government through Gov. Abdusakur Tan II.
RA 11054 was signed into law by President Duterte in July last year. It expanded the ARMM with the new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BAR) with greater fiscal autonomy, regional government, parliament, and justice system.
BAR will be composed of the current ARMM members – Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Basilan, Maguindanao, and Lanao del Sur. To be added to the region are six municipalities in Lanao del Norte, 39 villages in Cotabato, and the cities of Isabela and Cotabato subject to the approval of voters in the areas.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has set the plebiscite for the BOL on January 21.
The PAIA said the BOL did not violate the constitutional principle of separation of powers in the government.
“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,” it said.
Earlier, the OSG – in its comment to Tan’s petition – told the SC that RA 11054 does not violate Sections 18 and 19, Article X of the Constitution that mandates only one organic act to establish the ARMM.
It said that RA 11054 which created the BAR was not exactly a creation of a new autonomous region as described in the Constitution, but rather an amendment of the organic act and an expansion of the territorial jurisdiction of ARMM.