Atty. Mohammad Al-Amin Julkipli, a Tausug and the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the Bangsamoro Attorney General’s Office (BAGO), explains on Oct. 4, the twin motions that the Bangsamoro Government filed before the Supreme Court. (Michael Camsa/BIO)
COTABATO CITY—The Bangsamoro Government, through its Bangsamoro Attorney General’s Office (BAGO), filed Tuesday, Oct. 1, motion for leave to intervene and to admit the attached motion for partial reconsideration, praying to be a party to the case, which involves the severance of Sulu from the region, and to re-include the province to the Bangsamoro region.
These twin motions were submitted before the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, following the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s (BARMM) official receipt on Sept. 16, 2024 of the SC decision, excluding Sulu province from the autonomous region as decided on Sept. 9.
Under the Rules of Court, a party may file a motion for reconsideration of a judgment or final resolution within 15 days from notice thereof, with proof of service on the adverse party.
Atty. Mohammad Al-Amin Julkipli, a Tausug and the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the BAGO, explained on Oct. 4 that a motion for leave to intervene is filed to request the Court’s permission for a party, not originally involved in the proceeding, to intervene.
“When the Court agrees with you that you are a party that is worthy to take part in the case, you can be allowed to file your succeeding court documents or pleadings,” Julkipli said.
“For us in the BARMM, there is a special circumstance because when this case was filed in 2018, the BARMM was not yet constituted. When it was already pending in the Court, the BARMM, even though it has already been constituted, was not formally impleaded; meaning, throughout the lightlife of the case, the autonomous region itself was never a party,” Atty. Julkipli added.
The OIC Attorney General also shared that the twin motions were filed alongside the prayer that the SC reconsiders its decision about Sulu’s exclusion from the BARMM.
On Sept. 9, the high court ruled that Sulu province be severed from the Bangsamoro region after the province cast 54% negative votes in the 2019 plebiscite, resulting in its non-inclusion from the region.
Additionally, the same court held that Republic Act No. 11054, otherwise known as the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL)—the law responsible for the creation of the BARMM, is constitutional.
Since the SC’s decision “partially granted” the petition in the case herein, the Bangsamoro Government highlighted “partial reconsideration,” as attached to its motion for leave to intervene, as such prayer centered only on Sulu’s re-inclusion.
The lawyer also clarified that the twin motions were filed, for the language of the law in the decision mentioned that it is ‘immediately executory’ not ‘final and executory.’ Hence, this opened doors to the regional government’s legal moves.
Atty. Julkipli stressed that since the case concerns the whole Bangsamoro Government, ‘strong positions and feelings’ about the future of the case are present.
He continued that as soon as the SC renders its decision, there will be ‘clarity’ as to what other legal options can be explored.
“In the event that the Court reverses its ruling, deciding that Sulu’s inclusion is not unconstitutional, meaning it’s perfectly legal, that only means that the province does not need to be excluded from the autonomous region. As for us, that is already a signal that we can just continue with the status quo,” he stated.
The Bangsamoro lawyer expressed the BARMM’s ‘cautious’ optimism, as a proponent, to be heard and given due consideration in furtherance of its role as an advocate, stating, “It is also because we exerted all our diligence to really make this as foolproof as we can so we can really be convincing and we can really influence the result that we want.”
“This is born by that desire of the autonomous region to defend the integrity of the regional territory, but more importantly, as the Chief Minister emphasized, it is because the province of Sulu is very fundamental to the cause of the Bangsamoro […] and that it is part and parcel of the Bangsamoro identity with a very important role to play in our continuous struggle for our autonomy and development as one people.” (Johamin Inok/BIO)
