(Eagle News) — Senator Koko Pimentel on Wednesday, Jan. 23, commended the Commission on Elections and the Philippine National Police for the successful conduct of Day 1 of the Bangsamoro Organic Law plebiscite.
“Despite some untoward incidents and delays in the opening of polling precincts in Cotabato City, we can consider the BOL polls a huge success,” Pimentel said.
On Jan. 21, the BOL plebiscite was held in areas in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Cotabato City, and Isabela City in Basilan.
Before the start of the plebiscite, two men riding a motorcycle hurled grenades at the house of a Cotabato city judge.
No one was hurt.
A grenade was also thrown at the the entrance of a Cotabato high school only hours before the polling precincts were slated to open.
According to the senator, with this development, “we have reached another milestone on the road to peace in the country.”
He expressed hope for a more peaceful and successful conduct of a second BOL plebiscite, which is slated on Feb. 6, and which will cover Lanao del Norte except Iligan City, as well as the municipalities of Aleosan, Carmen, Kabacan, Midsayap, Pikit, and Pigkayawan in North Cotabato.
“The plebiscite is one of the legal challenges that we need to hurdle since the enactment of the (BOL),” Pimentel said.
Initial plebiscite results have shown a majority of voters in the ARMM areas want a ratification of the BOL, which seeks to replace the ARMM with a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region that will have an expanded land and water jurisdiction, fiscal autonomy, among others.
Sulu, however, has so far rejected the ratification of the law.
In October last year, the Sulu government, led by Gov. Abdusakur Tan II, went to the Supreme Court to question the legality of the BOL.
The petitioners argued Congress committed grave abuse of discretion in passing the law because the ARMM cannot be abolished without amending the Constitution.