SEN. JINGGOY EJERCITO ESTRADA
OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON PETITION CHALLENGING RA 11935

I am confident that the Supreme Court will immediately act on the petition. I will not argue with the merits of the case or the lack of it. I will defer to the wisdom of our justices. But as one of the proponents of the law postponing this year's barangay elections, this much I can say, Congress is vested by the Constitution with legislative power and we exercised such authority when we moved to defer the holding of the poll exercise this year. Such authority to postpone the barangay elections as well as the Sangguniang Kabataan elections has in fact been exercised thrice in the past prior to the enactment of RA 11935.

In a democratic society, everyone has an equal say on any issue, especially on the application of the law. Ang pagsampa ng petisyon sa Korte Suprema ay patunay na nanaig ang demokrasya sa ating bansa. Umaasa ako na papanigan ng kataas-taasang hukuman ang ipinasa naming batas.