MANILA, Philippines -- After President Aquino signed into law Republic Act (RA) 10153 that resets for 2013 the August 8 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Muslim leaders appealed for unity and to rally behind the President, saying the time for debates is over.

Through the initiative of the Aquino government, the new law calls for the next ARMM poll to be synchronized with the 2013 mid-term national and local elections and gives the President the powers to appoint more than 50 interim ARMM officials or officers-in-charge (OICs).

President Aquino’s determined push for the resetting of the regional political exercise spawned intense debates between pro- and anti-postponement.

Muslim leaders such as lawyer Bayan G. Balt, national chairman of the Alliance for Regional Coalitions Against People’s Poverty (ARCAPP), believes acrimonious debates must now stop and instead walk in unison with the President to achieve the "straight path."