Senate vows to block efforts to defer ARMM polls

Lawmakers from the Senate on Tuesday decried the moves to postpone elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, saying there is no logic why the regional polls should be postponed when there was no peace agreement yet between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. led opposition and administration senators in questioning President Arroyo for supporting calls to postpone the ARMM elections and he vowed to block all efforts to reset the August 11 ARMM elections.

"The Senate would definitely block all proposed legislation deferring the regional polls to 2010 unless there is a justifiable and urgent need to do so," Villar said.

Senators Francis Pangilinan, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Richard Gordon, Francis Escudero, Juan Ponce Enrile, Manuel Roxas II, Rodolfo Biazon and Pia Cayetano crossed party lines in supporting Villar against postponing the elections.

Mrs. Arroyo declared her support for calls of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and other sectors to defer the ARMM elections until after a final peace agreement is reached with the Moro rebels.

"We are wondering why such call for postponement has to be done. We cannot allow this to happen and we have to find out where this is coming from and its end goal. The people are getting confused and it's a pity because the candidates have campaigned," Villar pointed out.

Villar said Congress would have to deliberate first on the proposal while the people would have to see the peace agreement with the MILF.

Enrile said the ARMM elections should not be tied to the ongoing peace talks with the MILF. "Suppose they will not be able to finish the agreement, are we going to postpone it forever?" he asked.

He said holding the ARMM elections simultaneously with the national elections in 2010 would not be acceptable and that the law authorizing the conduct of the ARMM elections on Aug. 11 should be respected.

Administration Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, who earlier supported the call for postponement of the ARMM polls, said he backed out after failing to get the support of other lawmakers.

Zubiri said the move to postpone the election is "dead in the water in the Senate." He said that with only five session days left it is "logistically impossible" to amend the law setting the date of the ARMM elections.

In the House of Representatives, a measure seeking the postponement of the election also suffered a setback after Mindanao lawmakers failed to agree to support the bill.

A two-hour, closed-door caucus by the Mindanao bloc led by Speaker Prospero Nograles failed to resolve the issue after only 14 lawmakers voted in favor of the postponement while 14 disagreed and five abstained.

The so-called Mindanao bloc in the House of Representatives has 57 members.

Nograles, however, said he would ask President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to certify the bill. After the caucus of the Mindanao bloc Tuesday afternoon Nograles met with congressmen from ARMM who agreed to move for the postponement.

For his part, Rep. Simeon Datumanong, deputy speaker for Mindanao who co-authored the bill, admitted that time is running out to pass the measure.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said Zubiri's backtracking was an apparent realization that the Palace cannot force the issue.

Pimentel, who had allied himself with those against the postponement of the election, said the plan to postpone the ARMM polls could be a ploy to extend the terms of those who are abusing their office and the good ones who want to serve will be prevented from being elected because there will be no elections.

Senator Gordon said the move to postpone the ARMM elections virtually dictates on the turf of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). He said Comelec is ready for the ARMM elections that will showcase the efforts to computerize the elections in 2010.

Pangilinan, on the other hand, said postponing the ARMM polls would show a government that was inutile and lacking in political will.

For her part, Cayetano said the proposal came too late in the day. She said the elections are 20 days away and preparations are in full swing.

Comelec said they would continue its preparation even after Mrs. Arroyo made an open declaration supporting the postponement of the regional polls.

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said the poll body would abide by Congress should it decide to defer the regional elections.

But if Congress fails to enact a law postponing the ARMM polls, Melo said Comelec has to abide by the law setting the regional elections on Aug. 11.

Melo though admitted he personally wanted the elections in the ARMM to proceed since it would showcase the efforts of modernizing the electoral process for the 2010 polls.

Meanwhile, the MILF said Congress' failure to pass a law postponing the regional elections will not derail the signing of a pact with the government on ancestral domain.

MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said that barring any sudden major development, the signing will push through in Putra Jaya in Malaysia on August 5.

"On the signing I don't think it (failure to postpone ARMM polls) will affect the signing at Putra Jaya, Malaysia on Aug. 5," Iqbal said.

Negotiating panels of the government and MILF reached an agreement Sunday night on ancestral domain, after the MILF panel walked out of the negotiations last Friday.

Iqbal, however, reiterated his warning that if the Aug. 11 ARMM elections are not postponed, it will give the MILF an impression the government is not determined to talk peace.

Otherwise, Iqbal said the MILF "recognizes" the "internal dynamics" of the Philippine government, including procedures in Congress.

"What is important to us is that we have sent our official word to them, that as far as the MILF is concerned it is better to postpone the ARMM elections," he said. (HG)