Sulu governor vows to go to SC if BARMM elections postponed

Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan on Monday vowed to challenge before the Supreme Court (SC) any legislation that would postpone the elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao slated for next year.

Bills seeking to move the elections to 2025 and extend the life of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) remain pending in Congress.

Malacañang said President Rodrigo Duterte would stay neutral and left it to the lawmakers to decide on the matter after meeting with the contending parties last week.

At a Palace news conference, Tan said it would be “very awkward for the BARMM officials to be governing without any mandate.”

“If [the elections] will be postponed, I will challenge it before the Supreme Court because I would prefer to have elections in order to strengthen the leadership of our BARMM officials,” he said.

Tan, however, clarified that he would still support a BARMM government led by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim said an extension of BTA’s work was necessary since the body has yet to fulfill some of its obligations under the Bangsamoro Organic Law due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had to shift our attention to the pandemic. We were not able to fulfill other tasks,” he said in the same briefing.

Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said the pandemic adversely affected the BTA’s timetable, particularly in crafting its seminal codes and other key pieces of legislation.

Ebrahim said among the region’s top political leaders only Tan had expressed opposition to the idea of extending the transition period of the BARMM government.

“We have been requesting this extension. We saw that three years is a very short time in order to restructure the Bangsamoro government,” he said.

The BTA was created in 2019 following the ratification of the BOL, which replaced the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).—AOL, GMA News