MUSLIM COMMUNITY (UMMAH) HAILS SC ORDER ON MUSLIM AFFAIRS ROW
[PHOTO AT LEFT - Secretary and Chief Executive Officer Bai Omera Dianalan-Lucman goes back to work as usual after the issuance of the status quo ante order by the Supreme Court. Photo by JULMUNIR I. JANNARAL]
[RELATED STORY POSTED SEPTEMBER 19, 2010 BELOW]
MANILA, OCTOBER 21, 2010 (MANILA TIMES) BY JULMUNIR I. JANNARAL, CORRESPONDENT - THE recent status quo ante order resolution issued by the Supreme Court (SC) on the leadership row at the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) must be respected according to a Muslim lawyer, as various sectors and the Muslim ummah (community) hailed the en banc decision.
Lawyer Mehol Sadain, former commissioner of the Commission on Elections on Tuesday said he knows Dr. Hamid Aminoddin Barra, President Benigno Aquino 3rd's appointee, much better than NCMF Secretary Bai Omera Dianalan-Lucman, the appointee of former President Gloria Arroyo.
But according to Sadain being a lawyer and a Muslim brother to both appointees, the status quo ante order issued by the Supreme Court en banc must be respected by all concerned.
"I appreciate the status quo ante order, and would like the Supreme Court to pass judgment on their eligibility for the contested post. The SC order will not cause chaos and paralysis in the NCMF. The hasty and unceremonious replacement of the incumbents has already done that," Sadain opined.
Sadain who used to be one of the examiners in the Shari'ah (Muslim Law) Special Bar Examinations given by the Supreme Court, said the preparation for the hajj, which is a very important pillar of Islam got already affected, and time is not on the side of the divided NCMF.
"Had the government been more circumspect [at least in the NCMF's case], it could have dialogued with the incumbent Commissioners, instead of totally ignoring them, and just as suddenly sweeping them aside," Sadain added.
Delay govt reforms "It is not their fault that they were appointed by the past administration. And it is non-sequitur or wrong reasoning to say that their stay in office will delay government reforms. To think in this manner insults their good intentions and unfairly prejudges them as corrupt and/or incompetent. I say let the Court decide unhampered by Presidential harangue," he also emphasized.
"If the Executive Department has something to say in this case, it should do so by filing the proper pleadings through its lawyer, the Solicitor General, where even a freshman law student knows this," according to Sadain, a Muslim legal luminary who finished his law degree from the University of the Philippines College of Law, said further in his separate and personal opinion.
It can be noted that the status quo ante order had been issued by the High Tribunal prior to resolution of petitions challenging the constitutionality of Executive Order (EO) No. 2, through which President Aquino dismissed all "midnight appointees" of his predecessor former President Arroyo.
"The court is already resolving the matter. In the meantime, parties are expected to observe the status quo prevailing before the issuance of [EO] 2," Court Administrator and High Tribunal spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said on Friday.
The Supreme Court issued the status quo ante order has allowed Petitioner Bai Omera Dianalan-Lucman to stay as secretary and chief executive officer of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, which is a newly created government agency that replaced the now defunct Office on Muslim Affairs.
Lucman who politely declined to the query of The Times asking her to give further comment on the issuance of the status quo ante order as based on the petition filed by her lead counsel, lawyer Jose Ventura Aspiras and lawyer Bantuas Lucman, the collaborating counsel for the petitioner, said she would rather go on with her official duties than to give any comment about the Supreme Court order.
"It is enough that the Supreme Court has seen the merit of my petition," Lucman said without elaborating further.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court spokesman was also quoted to have said that although the court order applied only to the petitioner, Marquez earlier said that "judicial courtesy can be exercised in other cases to prevent any confusion during the transition."
RELATED EARLIER STORY
COMMISSION POWER STRUGGLE DIVIDES MUSLIM FILIPINOS (19-09-10) The Manila Times Dimanche, 19 Septembre 2010 00:00 Share
COTABATO City: Muslim leaders in the country to include prominent personalities from this city on Saturday urged President Benigno Aquino 3rd to solve the standoff on the power struggle between an Arroyo appointee vs. an Aquino appointee who are competing for the leadership of the newly created National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF), as this will lead to disunity of the ummah (Muslim community).
The NCMF is the government agency under the Office of the President created by Republic Act (RA) 9997 that replaced the defunct Office on Muslim Affairs. It covers both local and national affairs involving Muslim Filipinos. It is headed by a secretary, who at the same time act as the chief executive officer and is allowed to attend all cabinet-level meetings.
Bai Omera Dianalan-Lucman who was appointed by former President Gloria Arroyo is the first NCMF secretary and chief executive officer. However, President Aquino appointed recently another secretary, the former Education Secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Dr. Hamid Barra of Lanao del Sur, to replace Lucman, who is from the same province. Lucman, who took her oath on March 10 and assumed office after the appointment ban, asserted her appointment is not covered by Executive Order (EO) 2 that deals with midnight appointments signed by Arroyo.
Lucman filed through her lawyers a petition at the Supreme Court questioning the legality of EO 2 and at the same time seeking its nullification. In the opening of her petition submitted to the High Court Lucman cited the "core issue" on the controversy arising from being an appointee of Arroyo.
Legal grounds
"Does the assumption of office during the midnight appointment ban by an appointee who was appointed, and who took her oath, before the midnight ban make the appointment a prohibited midnight appointment?" she asked. Lucman refused to vacate her post saying that she has legal grounds to hold on to the position as she vowed to contest the appointment of Barra in the High Tribunal while her supporters since Friday surrounded the NCMF head office at the Jocfer Building along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City to prevent the assumption of Barra as the new NCMF secretary.
But Lucman asked for sobriety from her supporters as she is waiting for the action of the High Tribunal on the controversy. At the same time, Lucman directed her legal counsels composed of lawyers Jose Ventura Aspiras, lead counsel, and Bantuas Lucman, collaborating counsel, to proceed with their legal action as they filed on Thursday with the High Court a petition for prohibition and mandamus with urgent prayer for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and the case was docketed as GR 193519.
Also, an urgent motion for issuance of status quo ante order and to implead additional respondent was also filed on September 17 with prayer that the Honorable Court issue an order commanding respondents Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and newly appointed Barra to respect the status quo before EO 2 was issued and refrain from implementing and/or enforcing the appointment of Barra as replacement of petitioner as NCMF secretary and chief executive officer. Based on the above petitions, Lucman had refused to give way to the appointment of Barra, in addition to the fact that majority of the Muslim congressmen are opposed on the way Barra was appointed.
The Muslim lawmakers claimed that the Muslim leadership should have been consulted by Presidential Peace Adviser Teresita "Ging" Deles who was instrumental in recommending Barra to President Aquino. "I am not going to turn over the office [NCMF] to Barra at this time while my petitions are being heard by the Supreme Court," Lucman told The Manila Times in a phone interview.
Vehement refusal
The vehement refusal of Lucman to give up her post has prompted Barra to assume office at the NCMF-National Capital Region (NCR) office located at the Golden Mosque in Quiapo, Manila. However, confirmed sources said Barra just avoided further confrontation and trouble with the supporters of Lucman and that made him hold office at the NCFM-NCR office where he vowed also to exercise his mandate as the newly appointed NCMF secretary and chief executive officer.
In the meantime, Lucman believed that her removal from office is politically motivated and because of a power play by people close to President Aquino. Lucman has accused Deles of the Office of Presidential Adviser on Peace Process of promoting dissension and disunity among Muslim Filipinos where Lucman also tagged the member of the "Hyatt 10" as the prime mover in the appointment of Barra. Reportedly, it was Deles who recommended Barra to President Aquino as the new NCMF secretary replacing Lucman.
Intervention
Rep. Tupay Loong of the First District of Sulu who is also the chairman of the House Committee on Muslim Affairs is now intervening in the power struggle of Lucman vs. Barra for the NCMF leadership. Loong who delivered another privilege speech on Thursday in the House of Representatives strongly appealed to President Aquino to reconsider the appointment of Barra since this will divide rather than unite the minority Muslim Filipinos in the country.
"How can Secretary Deles become an effective facilitator of the peace process with her active partisan role in the choice of the secretary of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos?" asked Loong, claiming that Barra's appointment "clearly disregarded the letter and spirit of RA 9054." RA 9054 provides among others for the appointment of qualified Muslims in the national cabinet, agencies and corporations controlled or owned by the government.
Loong's privilege speech came on the heels of the preparations by the ARMM government of its first regional peace summit on September 20 and 21 here while peace stakeholders including foreign and national dignitaries and multi-sector representatives would discuss issues affecting the regional autonomy and draft a peace and development agenda.
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