The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday denied the motions seeking to reverse an earlier decision excluding the province of Sulu in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). 

“The Supreme Court denied the motions for partial reconsideration filed by the government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the Office of the Solicitor General, and others,” the SC said in a briefer. 

“These motions sought to reverse the Court’s Decision on September 9, 2024, which excluded the Province of Sulu from the BARMM.” 

Further, the SC said that its decision is “final and immediately executory”, and “no further pleadings will be entertained.” 

The SC in September upheld the validity of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) but declared that Sulu was not part of the BARMM. 

The Sulu province rejected the ratification of the BOL during the plebiscite in 2019. 

“As Sulu rejected the Bangsamoro Organic Law in the plebiscite, it was wrong to include the province in BARMM,” said SC spokesperson Camille Ting then. 

The Bangsamoro government in October asked the high court to re-include Sulu in the region noting that the  SC did not say that its ruling  was “final and executory.”

The SC maintained earlier that its ruling to exclude Sulu from BARMM shall take effect immediately. 

(With reports from Vince Angelo Ferreras, GMA Integrated News)