BARMM has eight registered regional political parties. They are expected to field their respective candidates in May 2025 for the region’s scheduled first parliamentary elections. Out of the 80 members of Parliament (MPs) to be elected, a chief minister will be chosen by the party, or alliance, that emerges as the majority.
Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-DSY
- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech & Digital News
MANILA (SDN) — “Early bird gets the worm” is a popular saying, and it’s supposed to come with benefits.
According to online Cambridge Dictionary, the above saying means that “someone will have an advantage if they do something immediately, or before other people do it.”
If we go by that sayings’ definition, then Sulu Gov. Abdusakur M. Tan, Al-Haj, stands to benefit as the early bird for the anticipated race for a regular chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). He was chosen — after consultations — by the BARMM Grand Coalition (BGC), made up of three regional and one provincial parties.
In saying “regular”, it means a chief minister who’s elected first as a member of Parliament (MP) of the BARMM, then with a majority out of the 80 MPs, he or she will be elected to head the Bangsamoro parliamentary government.
An icing on the political cake is the chief minister’s authority to appoint officials to head as ministers the BARMM’s 15 primary ministries, and many other positions.
Currently, the head of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) governing the Bangsamoro government is interim Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim, who was appointed twice, by virtue of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). First in 2019 by then President Rodrigo R. Duterte to a three-year term, then in 2022 by incumbent President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. for another three-year term.
Meaning, the supposed first regular parliamentary polls were to have occurred in May 2022, but it was, by operation of law, deferred to May 2025. Is there a space for a second postponement?
Along with Ebrahim, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the 80 MPs were either re-appointed or appointed by Marcos. That is, some are in their second go at the Parliament, others are first timers. In both instances of the BTA, the MILF has a majority of 41 MPs as stipulated in the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), the BARMM Charter.
Ebrahim is president of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the MILF’s political arm. Some of UBJP’s top officials include BARMM Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal (vice president) and Maguindanao del Norte Gov. Abdulraof Macacua (secretary general), also both top MILF leaders.
While the UBJP had already conducted several assemblies, and is positioning for the parliamentary polls, it has not yet revealed its bet for chief minister. But it has been holding general assemblies in various BARMM areas, in Cotabato City, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Tawi-Tawi, so far.
The BGC conducted its first general assembly in Cotabato City and Sulu this month, with more expected moving forward.
Smaller regional political parties in the BARMM angling for the parliamentary elections may have to coalesce with other parties to have even a slim chance of electing their chief minister. Short of that, nothing happens.
The Bangsamoro Party (BaPa), literally “uncle”, of BARMM Minister of Labor and Employment Muslimin G. Sema, held its first general assembly in Cotabato City on March 11, with thousands of attendees from various parts of the BARMM.
But as noted earlier, the governor of Sulu has already gained a lead time for being the first to be known aiming for the chief minister position of BARMM. Remember that name recall is crucial in elections among Filipinos. So, it might work like a charm for Tan.
That’s because prospective candidates for MPs may decide early whom to give their vote for chief minister once the regular Parliament is convened. Granting again, the regional elections push through as scheduled.
As many know, the parliamentary elections still hang in the balance because of a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to nullify the Bangsamoro Electoral Code (BEC), or at least part/s of it, that may prevent the political exercise from happening.
Even while the first parliamentary polls in May 2025 in the Bangsamoro region is still not a foregone conclusion, the BGC did not shy away from naming their bet for chief minister. A wise decision, so to speak.
Sulu is one of the areas comprising the territory of the six-year-old BARMM, established in 2018 through the BOL to implement the landmark 2014 CAB. Since January 2019, the BARMM is being governed by the MILF through the BTA.
Only elected members of Parliament in the running to be chief minister
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018, 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. With the recent plebiscite at SGA, the BARMM now has eight new municipalities after residents voted “Yes”.
According to the Philippine Atlas, BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities (plus eight newly established under the SGA: 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.
The BARMM Grand Alliance brings together powerful traditional political leaders through Al-Ittihad-UKB, BPP, SIAP, and Tan’s Salam Party.
In the grand alliance, aside from the Sulu governor, are Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Secretary Dr. Suharto “Datu Teng” T. Mangudadatu and his wife Maguindanao del Sur Gov. Bai Mariam Sangki Mangudadatu (Al-Ittihad-UKB), Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal A. Adiong, Jr. (SIAP), and Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman (BPP).
Observers said the coalition presents what could be a formidable opponent for the UBJP, the MILF’s political arm.
There are five other Bangsamoro regional political parties registered with the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which are also expected to field their respective candidates for MPs, the BARMM law-making body.
The political party, or parties, that would be able to garner the greatest number of winning MPs on their side will be able to choose the chief minister. Again, granting the regional elections push through as sceduled. If not, the President has the authority to again appoint MPs.
Tan, the long-time political kingpin of Sulu, once a bastion of the dreaded Abu Sayyat Group (ASG) that thrived on kidnapping for ransom of foreigners and Filipinos alike, was endorsed as chief minister by Adiong and his vice governor, Mujam Adiong; the vice governor of Sulu, Toto Tan; Sultan Kudarat Gov. Datu Pax Ali Sangki Mangudadatu; Gov. Mariam Sangki Mangudadatu; Hataman; BARMM municipal mayors; some leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF); ulama sector; and other political groups.
It means the governor of Sulu must join the regional elections and win as MP in order to be in the running for the post of chief minister.
More crucially, regional elections first have to happen. (✓)