COTABATO CITY — Residents of the Bangsamoro provinces have mixed feelings over the Supreme Court ruling that Sulu is not part of the autonomous region, released on Monday, September 9.
It was the administration of the governor of Sulu, Hadji Abdusakur Mahail Tan Sr., no less, who questioned, four years ago thereabouts before the Supreme Court the inclusion of their province in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao despite their having voted against it in a plebiscite for the creation of BARMM in early 2019.
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The Supreme Court had said the Bangsamoro Organic Law is constitutional because it does not make BARMM a separate state from the Philippines but clarified, at the same time, that it does not in any way cover Sulu province in the country’s south.
“As Sulu rejected the Bangsamoro Organic Law in the plebiscite, it was wrong to include the province in the BARMM,” the Supreme Court said.
The Bangsamoro Organic Law also known as the Republic 11054, is the charter of the now five-year BARMM that replaced in 2019 the then 27-year, now defunct Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
A member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, the lawyer Laisa Masuhud Alamia, on Tuesday, September 10, described the issue as something like a “pivotal moment” in what is for her "complex history" of the Bangsamoro people’s struggle for meaningful autonomy.
She said the Supreme Court decision, premised on a petition by Tan, has political, administrative and security implications and has bearing on next year’s first ever parliamentary elections in BARMM.
“For political leaders and peace advocates, the (Supreme Court's) decision serves as a reminder of the importance of dialogue, inclusivity, and strategic thinking in navigating the challenges ahead,” Alamia said, apparently referring to Bangsamoro governance in Mindanao.
Tan is supposedly the anointed bet of the influential Bangsamoro Grand Coalition for chief minister if the 2025 regional parliamentary elections proceed as scheduled.
Other members of the regional parliament told reporters on Tuesday that the Supreme Court ruling virtually disqualified Tan to become regional chief minister, with Sulu being no longer part of BARMM's core territory now.
The Bangsamoro United Justice Party, led by BARMM's appointed chief minister, Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, is to field candidates for the regional parliament in next year's Bangsamoro parliamentary polls.
The BGC is led by Tan, Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., Basilan’s congressional representative, Mujiv Hataman, Maguindanao del Sur Gov. Mariam Mangudadatu and her spouse, Suharto Mangudadatu, former executive director of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, who had also served as governor of Sultan Kudarat in Region 12.
Provincial officials of the Bangsamoro Grand Coalition, which now has more than 700,000 fully documented followers across the autonomous region, told reporters they were saddened by the Supreme Court ruling.
Mohd Asnin Pendatun, spokesperson of the BARMM regional government, said their focus, in the meantime, is determining how to continue serving residents of Sulu via the provincial offices of its ministries in the province while the Supreme Court decision has not been implemented yet.
“The Supreme Court decision is final and executory. We need time to work out measures on how to address its effects on regional governance in Sulu, how to address its effects on our provincial offices there and how it will affect the employees of these offices,” he told reporters in a press briefing Tuesday at the BARMM capitol in Cotabato City.