G.R. No. 242255, 243246, 243693. November 26, 2024.
PROVINCE OF SULU, ET AL., PETITIONER, VS. HON. SALVADOR C. MEDIALDEA, ET AL., RESPONDENTS. (Consolidated Cases)

FACTS

The Supreme Court, in a September 9, 2024 Decision, partially granted the petition in G.R. No. 242255. It declared Republic Act No. 11054 (the Bangsamoro Organic Law or BOL) void and unconstitutional only insofar as it included the Province of Sulu in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The Court upheld the validity of the BOL’s remaining provisions. The ruling was based on the result of the 2019 plebiscite where the people of Sulu voted against ratifying the BOL. Several parties filed Motions for Partial Reconsideration seeking to reverse this exclusion of Sulu from the BARMM. The movants included the BARMM government (through Chief Minister Ahod B. Ebrahim), the Office of the Solicitor General (representing various government respondents), petitioner-intervenor Atty. Algamar A. Latiph, and Atty. Laisa Masuhud Alamia (a BARMM official). They argued, among other things, that treating the former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) provinces as one “geographic area” for the plebiscite was a valid legislative prerogative under the Constitution, that the aggregate votes of the ARMM as one unit should be counted, and that excluding Sulu would disrupt governance and funding. They also invoked the doctrine of operative fact.

ISSUE

Whether the Supreme Court should reconsider its September 9, 2024 Decision declaring the inclusion of the Province of Sulu in the BARMM unconstitutional, based on the arguments raised in the Motions for Partial Reconsideration.

RULING

The Supreme Court DENIED the Motions for Partial Reconsideration. It upheld its prior ruling that the inclusion of Sulu in the BARMM was unconstitutional. The Court reiterated that the creation of an autonomous region must be based on the independent will of the people in each province or city. It held that the BOL’s treatment of the entire former ARMM as one geographic area for plebiscite purposes overrode the right of each province and city to self-determination. The Court emphasized that the people of Sulu voted against ratifying the BOL in the plebiscite, and this Court cannot override the expressed will of the people. The result of the plebiscite was clear, and the Court cannot trivialize that reality. The Province of Sulu shall not be part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.