SC rules with finality: Sulu not part of BARMM

Metro Manila, Philippines — The exclusion of Sulu from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is final and immediately executory, the Supreme Court ruled.

The high court said it denied the motions for partial reconsideration filed by the BARMM government, the Office of the Solicitor General, and others during its session on Tuesday, Nov. 26.

“No further pleadings will be entertained,” the court said in a press briefer.

The appeals sought to reverse the ruling on the southern province’s exit from the BARMM, which was promulgated on Sept. 9.

Penned by Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, the September decision declared the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which created the BARMM, valid. It, however, declared Sulu not part of the region after its residents rejected the law during a referendum in 2019.

Part of the arguments raised by the Bangsamoro attorney general was that 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.”

In making its verdict final and immediately executory, the Supreme Court said it acknowledged “far-reaching effects” of Sulu’s previous inclusion in the BARMM, including resource allocation for the province’s development, employment opportunities, and policy rollout.

“Thus, all decisions, policies, and actions taken in reliance on the Province of Sulu’s status as part of BARMM during this period shall not be summarily nullified by our ruling,” Leonen wrote in the resolution on Tuesday but publicized Wednesday, Nov. 27.

“Instead, they shall be addressed in a manner that respects their established impacts on governance, financial allocation, and administrative framework within the Province of Sulu,” he said. “Appropriate mechanisms must be applied to validate, adapt, or conclude these projects and programs in a way that minimizes potential disruptions to the public interest, maintains stability, and protects the welfare of the people of Sulu.”

The ruling would impact the seven parliamentary seats for Sulu as the region prepares for its first elections that would coincide with the midterm polls.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier said the government has been reviewing calls to postpone the BARMM elections on May 12, 2025. 

More details on the resolution

The high court said it was “no stranger” to the shared history of Sulu and the rest of the Bangsamoro, but maintained that the issue which the court acted upon was “one of constitutionality in the lived present.”

The magistrates said the Constitution allows provinces, cities, and geographical areas to decide on whether they wish to be included in the autonomous region.

They added that constitutional provision “does not contemplate a situation where the entire autonomous region shall vote as one.”

“Hence, even though the constituents of Sulu did not vote on the question of whether they should be included in BARMM, their rejection of the Bangsamoro Organic Law is tantamount to a rejection of their inclusion in BARMM,” Leonen explained in the resolution.

“To rule otherwise would force them to join the creation of the very law that they supposedly rejected,” he said. “It would also place the status of the Province of Sulu in limbo, leaving it neither part of any autonomous region nor a standalone province.”

Leonen said that the BARMM was a new entity and that “a voting unit must first ratify the Bangsamoro Organic Law to join the region it creates.”

In a final note, the court said that nowhere in its conclusions “did this Court denigrate, diminish nor marginalize the contribution of the Tausug of Sulu,” but rather recognized “their collective voice of self-determination expressed through the plebiscite.”

It also said that the claim that BARMM is not BARMM without Sulu “oversimplified the Bangsamoro identity to a single thread, overlooking the many voices that collectively define the region.”

“Not being part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region does not reduce the identity of the Tausug as Bangsamoro as much as a Filipino’s choice to reside abroad does not diminish their Filipino identity,” Leonen wrote.

“It simply is a choice not to join the current political arrangement,” he said. “Should the Tausugs in Sulu wish to rejoin, there are peaceful, legal processes allowed by the Constitution for them to do so.”