THE Supreme Court (SC) yesterday junked with finality the motions for partial reconsideration filed by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) government, the Office of the Solicitor General, and a Muslim lawyer seeking to reverse its September 9 ruling which excluded the province of Sulu from the coverage of the autonomous region.
SC spokesperson Camille Sue Ting said the decision was reached by the magistrates during their regular en banc session Tuesday.
“The Decision is final and immediately executory. No further pleadings will be entertained,” a briefer issued by the SC on the ruling said.
The SC has yet to release a full copy of the ruling.
Aside from the BARMM and the OSG, lawyer Algamar Latiph also called on the SC to reverse its ruling, arguing that Sulu is an “integral and constitutive” part of BARMM.
Latiph also asked the magistrates to hold in abeyance the implementation of the decision until the conclusion of the 2025 national and local elections.
To recall, the SC affirmed the constitutionality of the BARMM Organic Act but declared that Sulu is not part of the autonomous region after its voters rejected the law in a plebiscite.
The SC cited the result of a 2019 plebiscite where 54 percent of Sulu voters voted negatively, effectively opting out of the province’s inclusion in the BARMM.
