December 6, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri plans to file a proposal reintegrating Sulu into the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Zubiri said leaders and residents of Sulu are now seeing the benefits of the province’s inclusion in the BARMM, which they initially rejected during the 2018 plebiscite.
In September, the Supreme Court (SC) upheld the constitutionality of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which created the BARMM.
However, the high tribunal excluded Sulu from the Bangsamoro region as residents had voted against the ratification of the law during a plebiscite. The SC granted a petition filed by Sulu residents.
The SC said the ruling is final and immediately executory, and pleadings will not be entertained.
Zubiri said since the enactment of the Bangsamoro law, the autonomous region has attained peace and development, and the poverty rate has decreased by almost half.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the poverty rate in the region decreased from 60 percent to about 24 percent.
Zubiri said he is open to proposals to postpone the first parliamentary elections in the BARMM.
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