Friday, August 01, 2008 Palace to Senate: Support Armm poll postponement
CHIEF Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Antonio Apostol said there is still time for the legislative branch particularly the Senate to pass a bill postponing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) elections if the senators would just reconsider their stand and think of the welfare of the people.
"I think there is still enough time. The problem now is how would the Senate react. That would be the problem," he said.
Apostol appealed to the senators to rethink their stand and act on the call for the postponement of the elections which Malacañang supports.
"Think about the welfare of the peace process," he added.
Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said Presidential peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. met Wednesday night with Senators Richard Gordon and Juan Miguel Zubiri to brief them on the proposed agreement on the ancestral domain and how it relates to the request for a postponement of the Armm elections.
Dureza said Gordon, chairman of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, acknowledged the explanations of Esperon but "was non-committal".
"He (Gordon) said it will depend really on how this will resonate with the other members of the Senate," said Dureza adding that Esperon would also meet with other senators until Friday to give them a similar briefing and hopefully get their support.
Dureza and Esperon last Tuesday met with members of the House for a similar briefing which resulted in a commitment of the House leadership to support the postponement.
Dureza added that whether or not an agreement on ancestral domain is signed between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on August 5, the government's support for the postponement of the elections would stand.
"I don't think from what I take, it should not also be a condition sine qua non that means that there should be no signing if there is no postponement. I don't think that it is in that light," he said.
He said the ceremonial signing of the ancestral domain agreement has been set for August 5 which would be witnessed by some lawmakers and even local government officials of Malaysia and the Philippines.
He said that despite moves to prevent the signing, the ceremonies would proceed unless the court halts it.
North Cotabato Vice Governor Manuel Piñol is seeking a restraining order to stop the signing of the ancestral domain agreement which he said would mean the National Government's abandonment of his province.
Dureza, however, stressed that the government is not abandoning North Cotabato, and the effort to find lasting peace would "benefit him (Piñol) and his constituents in North Cotabato".
"The effort to find a sustainable peace settlement is to bring to the area of Vice Governor Piñol. He cannot preside over a province that is continuously being subjected to this conflict and the first beneficiary of the fruits of the effort of government now to find a peaceful settlement, address the aspiration of the Bangsamoro is really to bring sustainable peace to many in the area," he added.
The bill postponing the August 11's Armm elections was approved by the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms.
Seventeen committee members were for the postponement, with three opposing and two abstaining.
House Bill 483 was certified as urgent by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in a July 29 letter sent to House Speaker Prospero Nograles.
Five Mindanao congressmen filed the bill on July 24, proposing to amend the law which pegs the Armm elections to August 11, by changing the date to make it simultaneous with the date of the May 2010 national elections.
But despite the House's approval of the postponement, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Jose Melo said they will hold the country's first automated elections.
"We will still hold this election but a non-binding one," Melo said.
He noted that since they are 99 percent ready for next month's elections, they are thinking of holding non-binding elections as they have spent much for the preparations.
According to him, the commission is obliged to pay P615 million contracts with technology providers Smartmatic-Sahi and Avante International even if the elections would not push through.
"Even the candidates already have their names in the ballots so we might as well hold it," said Melo. (JMR/FP/Sunnex)
