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COTABATO CITY, 2nd September 2023 (SDN) — On August 28, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) headed by Chair George Erwin Garcia opened the first day of Certificates of Candidacy (CoC) filing for the oft-postponed Barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan Elections (BSKE) 2023.
As of Friday, 1st of September the poll body reported close to a million candidates filed their CoCs. Registration for the BSKE ends today, Saturday. Some select areas like in the National Capital Region (NCR) was extended to 4th of September because of suspension of inclement weather.
Over at the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Hajj Murad” Ebrahim emphasized the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) has taken a no-participation and no-endorsement policy in the BSKE.
Ebrahim is chair of the MILF and the UBJP, which fielded candidates in the May 2022 national and local elections (NLE).
Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo, head of the Bangsamoro Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG), reported that the UBJP held a meeting in Davao City on 27th of August as the party declared its non-participation policy.
“The Chief Minister Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim, who is also the Party President of UBJP, during this August 27, 2023, meeting in Davao City, officially declared as a policy that the UBJP will not participate and endorse candidates for the Barangay and SK Elections this October 30, 2023,” Sinarimbo, also the BARMM spokesman, said.
He said the policy declaration is a reiteration of an earlier pronouncement that Ebrahim as the UBJP President already made in relation to the forthcoming BSK Elections.
“Anyone claiming to represent the party (and especially those present in this meeting) and making a contrary position on this policy should be reminded of this,” Sinarimbo, UBJP Deputy Secretary General, emphasized.
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the Special Geographic Area’s (SGA) 63 barangays or villages that voted “Yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; undivided Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. — EKU (✓)