Plebiscite needed to defer BARMM poll’

MANILA, Philippines —  A plebiscite is required to postpone the first Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary elections and the Commission on Elections may no longer have the time to do this, veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said yesterday.

In a statement, Macalintal said any law to postpone the BARMM polls next year also has to be approved in a plebiscite by a majority of registered voters in the region, in the same manner that they ratified the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) in a plebiscite in January 2019.

He explained that “organic acts, like the BOL, are more than ordinary statutes because they enjoy affirmation by a plebiscite and cannot be amended by an ordinary statute.”

“The amendatory law has to be submitted to a plebiscite before it could become effective,” Macalintal pointed out. “Clearly, to postpone again the said election will be an amendment of BOL, which specifically scheduled the first regular election for the Bangsamoro government to be synchronized with the 2022 national elections.”

He said the poll body, considering its vast preparations for the 2025 elections, no longer has the time to conduct a plebiscite at this time.

“In other words, an election can no longer be postponed based on the fleeting dictates of politics,” Macalintal added.