The three main branches of government have always maintained

a healthy respect for each other as institutions of democracy.

But they always jealously guard their respective mandates.

This makes them occasionally adversarial.

Which is just fine with us citizens because the system of checks and balance guarantees that all of them do not overstep their bounds.

On rare occasions, however, when the national interest so dictates, all three branches converge to arrive at an enlightened consensus.

This meeting of the minds came to pass this week when the Supreme Court ruled that the Malacanang-sponsored law postponing  until 2013 the  elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao as constitutional.

In effect, what the Executive department initiated and passed by Congress has  now been affirmed by the SC.

It was a win-win situation for all three branches, with the Palace leading the cheering squad.           

No less than President Aquino expressed gratitude to and praise for  the SC for its favorable  decision.

Here’s the President in his own words:

We thank the Supreme Court for upholding our effort to break the cycle of impunity, corruption and poverty in the ARMM. The administration supported the bill to synchronize the ARMM elections with national elections in an effort to end the vicious cycle of abnormal elections where the mandate of the people is subverted by means of the command vote wielded by local political families.

We believe that if local political families must attend to their election at the same time that national elections are being conducted, they will be less able to utilize command votes in favor of political patrons to subvert the national will.

Command voting has contributed to the cycle of impunity, the results of which have been demonstrated in the region being bloodied by the reign of impunity, as witnessed by the Maguindanao Massacre, in which 57 people were allegedly killed by a local political family. 

And ARMM has been, for so long, a region in which not only impunity, but also poverty, has plagued the region, with poverty incidence among families in the ARMM reaching 38.1% in 2009.

The Supreme Court decision gives us a great opportunity to correct these long-standing problems. It is an opportunity that we will not squander.

Along with synchronized elections, we are undertaking measures to ensure the long-term stability and equitable progress of the region—among them the 8.592 billion pesos that our administration is providing for the ARMM transition and investment support plan. The fund will pave the way for improving service delivery performance, reforming and strengthening governance capacities, improving public safety and security, and other socio-economic projects toward ensuring peace, stability and inclusive economic growth in ARMM.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, Sen. Ralph Recto also lauded the SC for its humility and its firm embrace of democratic reforms  

In his own statement, Recto said:

The Supreme Court has finally locked arms with the executive and the legislative departments in sowing the first seeds of reforms in ARMM.

By upholding the constitutionality of the ARMM polls deferment, the high court’s magistrates have humbly corrected themselves. It did the right thing in appreciating the imperative need to postpone the elections and allow the chief executive to appoint reform-minded individuals.

After two branches of government — Malacanang and Congress — openly agreed to set forth sweeping changes to correct flawed and excessive governance, the Supreme Court has done its part by completing the troika of democratic reformers.

The ball is now in the court of the residents/voters of the ARMM. Let them chart their own destiny.

Meanwhile, let our national leaders push the national agenda.