MARAWI CITY—Datu Michael Abas Kida of Maguindanao urged Muslim groups on Thursday not to allow themselves to be used by “Big Brother” in pushing the postponement of the election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, “Big Brother” referred to a government obsessed with total control over its citizenry.

Kida singled out the group Reform ARMM Now that, he said, has always been cited by government in its press statements rallying support for ARMM poll postponement.

“We Muslims, including those who are not even based in Mindanao, should not be a party to moves by the administration to deny the people of ARMM their right to vote,” said Kida.

“We must not succumb to this divide-and-conquer tactic of a Manila-centrist government. We must work first and foremost for our interests.”

He lamented that the group wants to surrender the autonomy that Muslims worked very hard for to achieve by pushing for the appointment of officers in charge (OICs) through a consultative process.

“That’s quite naïve because in a democracy, a clear mandate to govern can only come from being elected into office by the people,” said the datu from the town of Datu Odin Sinsuat.

“And what consultative process were they talking about? Like the sham consultation meetings held by proadministration congressmen in ARMM, which the government hijacked into a campaign for poll postponement?”

Kida said while the people of ARMM made it clear to the visiting congressmen that they opposed ARMM poll postponement, “the administration lawmakers totally ignored their sentiments and railroaded the passage of House Bill [HB] 4146.”

Kida has challenged the constitutionality of HB 4146 before the Supreme Court, which found his complaint to be “sufficient in form and substance.”

He also brushed aside the statement of Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo that the election must be postponed to allow the government time to dismantle private armies, after which, he (Robredo), said he guarantees that the 2013 ARMM election will be orderly and peaceful.

“For a man who cannot even get a permanent appointment to his post, Secretary Robredo has been guaranteeing a lot of things. He should first get a guarantee that he’d still be at DILG [Department of the Interior and Local Government] in 2013.”

Pimentel disputes Robredo

FORMER Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. meanwhile said postponing the August 8 ARMM election is not the answer to what Robredo had called a “failed experiment” in autonomy.

“If the ARMM has been a ‘failed experiment’, the failure springs from a half-hearted implementation of the law that created the autonomous region. The correct thing to do is to give Muslim Filipinos the widest possible latitude in self-rule, first by respecting their right of suffrage and giving them the chance to elect their own leaders,” Pimentel said.

“Once we have an elected leadership with a genuine mandate from the people, then they should be given all the chance to prove their worth. That is the essence of autonomy,” he added.

If Malacañang succeeds in postponing the election and appoints officers in charge in ARMM, Pimentel said, the likelihood is that the OIC to be appointed by Malacañang would not enjoy the trust and confidence of Muslim Filipinos and would only be totally alienated from the very people they are supposed to serve.

“I am extremely wary of lackeys being placed by Malacañang in positions of power in ARMM, even if they are prohibited from running in 2013. What would prevent them from delivering ARMM lock, stock and barrel to administration candidates in 2013 and 2016?” Pimentel said. 

He explained that those pushing for poll postponement cannot validly invoke high poverty incidence, corruption and previous cases of massive electoral fraud and violence in ARMM as justification.

“If that were a valid argument, then the proponents of the deferment of the ARMM elections may well be advocating sub rosa the abrogation of the 2013 and 2016 national elections. After all, the blights they see in ARMM are also faced by people in other parts of the country.”

 “All the more should ARMM be given the chance to put in place the necessary reforms in the economic, political and social sphere. If we deprive ARMM voters the chance to choose their own leaders, we deprive them of the chance to reform their society by themselves. We gave them autonomy, but it’s not autonomy if we dictate to them what they should do,” Pimentel pointed out.

 Pimentel, the author of the ARMM Organic Act, said if the Senate bends to pressure from Malacañang and passes a consolidated bill postponing the ARMM election, then “the Act would very likely be challenged before the Supreme Court for being an unconstitutional and illegal act.”

Malacañang welcomes JPE support

MALACAÑANG expressed elation over the statement by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile who said the bill seeking the postponement of the election in the ARMM has started to gain support among senators.

“We thank the Senate President for issuing that statement certainly because we are for the postponement of the ARMM election. Because we believe this is a reform measure, not only a reform measure but also to save cost for the government when it comes to having a synchronized election,” Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

President Aquino wants the ARMM elections synchronized with the May 13, 2013 national and local elections “in order to level the playing field.”

The Palace is confident that with the Senate support, it would be able to pass the bill to postpone the ARMM elections even in a very limited period of time.

Enrile said that “there are numbers” in the Senate who support the postponement of the ARMM elections and its synchronization in the mid-term 2013 elections.

Enrile, who openly supports the bill, however, said he has still to wait for the report of the Senate Committee on Local Government headed by Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is gauging the pulse of the people in ARMM.

The House of Representatives has passed HB 4146 resetting the ARMM polls from August 8 this year to May 13, 2013.

Last week the President met with six senators to drum up support for HB 4146 that seeks to postpone the ARMM elections.

At the same time, Presidential Peace Adviser Teresita Deles said the synchronization of the ARMM polls with the 2013 midterm elections “will move the Mindanao peace process forward.” 

According to Deles, the postponement of elections “provides for the flexibility” that whatever will come out of the negotiating table will not be subjected to the prejudice of a newly elected regional government that has a term of three years.

“What happens in the ARMM is relevant to the peace process because that is the core of the territory. The people who are voters in the ARMM are the people who will also be the main constituency that will be affected by the peace process,” Deles added.

(With B. Fernandez and Z. Somerin)