MANILA, Philippines – Lack of quorum in the House of Representatives on Wednesday night derailed the scheduled approval of the bill postponing the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Davao del Sur Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas, who is against House Bill 4146, questioned the quorum when attendance had thinned out since many members had left the session hall.
Cagas ignored pleas from Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II and accounts committee chairman Rep. Florencio Noel of the party-list group An Waray for him to temporarily withdraw his question to give way to some of his colleagues who wanted to air their views about the election postponement measure.
One such colleague was Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla. Ironically, Cagas and Padilla belong to the House minority bloc led by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman.
With the Davao del Sur lawmaker obstinately refusing to allow more debates, Gonzales had no choice but to move for the adjournment of the session.
The House had set second-reading and third-reading approval of the ARMM election postponement bill for Wednesday night so it could devote its last three remaining session days next week to Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez’s impeachment case.
Lenten break
The two chambers of Congress are going on a month-long Lenten break starting next Thursday.
Gonzales told The STAR yesterday that he would set the bill for plenary approval again on Tuesday if the impeachment schedule would allow it.
“We still have time to pass the bill before our break next weekend,” he said.
He said he has no doubt that the measure would be approved since majority of the members of the Liberal Party-led House coalition are supporting it.
Gonzales said the measure is one of 23 urgent bills that President Aquino wanted Congress to pass.
Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez yesterday appealed to Aquino to withdraw support for HB 4146, saying he wanted the President “not to be burdened with a possible crisis arising from postponing the ARMM elections.”
Letter to Senate
But the President, in a letter to the Senate dated March 14, certified the “necessity” of HB 4146, which would amend Republic Act 9333 that fixed the date of the ARMM polls.
Resetting the regional elections would “protect and strengthen the ARMM’s autonomy” and “ensure that the ongoing peace talks in the region will not be hindered,” Aquino stated in the letter, which was read before the Senate plenary Wednesday.
Member-parties of the coalition in the House have vowed to vote for postponing the ARMM elections.
Valenzuela Rep. Rex Gatchalian, spokesman of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), said their 40-member group has decided to support the postponement bill.
“We are voting as one, unlike in the impeachment case, on which our members will cast a conscience vote,” he said.
Malacañang called on lawmakers and other groups opposing the postponement of the ARMM elections to join the consultations in coming up with a framework by which all stakeholders would be able to participate in the process.
Assurance on OICs
The President gave assurance that if given the opportunity by Congress to appoint ARMM officers-in-charge (OICs) if the elections were postponed, he would get politicians, members of the academe, religious and various civil society groups to discuss the issue.
“We will try to get as front a base of stakeholders present to discuss who should preside over the ARMM, not giving any undue advantage to any particular group so that we could be able to synchronize by 2013,” Aquino told reporters in an ambush interview in Malacañang.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said they would not have a “dictatorial process” as the criteria in the selection of ARMM OICs would be participatory.
“This is a situation and an opportunity for reform in ARMM,” he said.
Earlier, Lacierda said support for the poll postponement was already snowballing among local government officials and residents in the region.
Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr., who chairs the committee on suffrage and electoral reform and principal sponsor of the postponement bill, said the measure has to be approved before next weekend’s recess.
“We are running out of time. August is fast approaching. This bill still has to go to the Senate, unless senators approve a counterpart bill simultaneously with the House. After that, it will go to the President. Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections is rushing preparations and spending precious taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Assuming Congress approves it and the President signs the bill into law, Barzaga said those opposing it could question it before the Supreme Court.
“If that happens, then the ARMM elections will most likely push through in August as scheduled,” he said.
But Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Joker Arroyo said the measure will not likely be approved before Congress adjourns for the Lenten break on March 23. Sotto said the Senate will likely tackle it when session resumes in May.
No to PCOS
Meanwhile, the Automated Election System Watch, a multisectoral poll watchdog, rallied in front of the Comelec office yesterday to ask the agency not to use precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines, which it said were flawed, and instead revert to the manual system in the ARMM polls.
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said he also supports calls not to use the PCOS machines, as the ARMM folk would only vote for a few positions. – With Aurea Calica, Christina Mendez, Paolo Romero, Evelyn Macairan, Sheila Crisostomo