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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech & Digital News
COTABATO CITY, February 19, 2024 (SDN) — Preparations for the first parliamentary election in the Bangsamoro region just got more intense.
And in the thick of it all is the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the political platform of the erstwhile revolutionary organization, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), chaired by Ahod B. “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim, also the UBJP president.
In sheer number the biggest political party in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the UBJP conducted its 1st Regional General Assembly on February 17 at the expansive Oval of the Cotabato State University (CSU). The educational institution is strategically located along busy Sinsuat Avenue, the city’s major artery which links the BARMM capital to the south of Mindanao.
When the UBJP Secretariat concluded the count of the registered participants at around noon time that day, there were over 28,000 warm bodies who took their oath. Ebrahim, Chief Minister of the BARMM, administered their oath, pledging loyalty to UBJP and adhering to its by-laws, rules, and regulations.
And a day after the massively attended assembly, the UBJP, formed in 2013, inaugurated its Headquarters in the city’s Barangay Tamontaka 1. Notable Bangsamoro political and traditional leaders, professionals, women, and youths, among other sectors, witnessed the opening of the Headquarters as it opened for business.
The general assembly and the inauguration both led by Ebrahim with other party stalwarts, marked the two significant salvos that symbolized the UBJP’s readying for the May 2025 parliamentary election when 80 Members of Parliament (MPs) of the BARMM will be elected. It seems there is no turning back.
Established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the Bangsamoro region 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.
All the speakers at the inauguration of the UBJP Headquarters, among them Ebrahim, UBJP Executive Vice President/Vice President for Central Mindanao Mohagher M. Iqbal, Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao, and other party leaders spoke about the need to prepare for next year’s political exercise.
“There is no other way but win the election,” said Iqbal, who wears many hats in the Bangsamoro peace process.
Being governed by the MILF through the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the BARMM is still in a transition phase since January 2019, its fifth year in the Year of the Dragon.
The election in May 2025 should if it pushes through will mark the regularly elected BARMM legislators.
No less than President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. made clear in no uncertain terms his preference for the holding of the parliamentary polls.
“On this, let me be blunt in my warning as it is what our people want: Let not one bullet disenfranchise one single ballot. After the elections, it will be a new chapter for BARMM,” the President said on February 8 at the National Government and Bangsamoro Government 17th Inter-Governmental Relations Body (IRGB) Meeting in Manila, Metro Manila.
Present as well in the meeting included Ebrahim, the Bangsamoro Chief Minister, and other national and regional officials. (✓)
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To be updated with more details, information.