“We should all commit to respecting and implementing all signed Peace Agreements.”
— Atty. Naguib G. Sinarimbo of SIAP
Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-E15
- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech & Digital News
MANILA (SDN) — Political parties in the Bangsamoro Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) have been ramping up their preparations for the May 2025 parliamentary elections.
General assemblies are being conducted, the latest of which is the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, last week. BARMM interim Chief Minister Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim is UBJP president.
The Bangsamoro Grand Coalition (BGC) of three regional parties and one provincial party has so far revealed its bet for chief minister, Sulu Gov. Abdusakur M. Tan.
As it ramps up its preparation, the BGC — comprised of Al-Ittihad-UKB, SIAP, BPP, and Tan’s Salam Party, has also unveiled its 10-Point Agenda for the Bangsamoro region.
This was shared on social media by lawyer Naguib G. Sinarimbo, a stalwart of SIAP (a member of the BGC, and former minister of the BARMM’s Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG).
At the top of the BGC’s agenda is the implementation of all peace agreements the Philippine government (GPH) signed with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Obviously, it is a message to those who may doubt the coalition’s plans on the full implementation of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) — GPH-MILF — and the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) — GPH-MNLF, and other attendant accords.
In a message to SDN — SciTech & Digital News, Sinarimbo gave a brief explanation on the manner of the regional elections on how members of Parliament (MPs) are to be voted upon.
“For parliamentary districts, you need to run in the cluster of municipalities constituting a parliamentary district. For party representatives, the party will be voted upon region-wide and the 40 seats will be allocated on the basis of the votes garnered by each political party. For sectoral and reserved seats, and only for the 2025 elections, it will be through assemblies of the accredited sectoral organizations,” the SIAP official said. He was one of UBJP’s earliest leaders.
According to Sinarimbo’s post, here is the complete 10-Point Agenda of the BGC:
- Implement all signed peace agreements;
- Facilitate the normalization program for Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) communities alongside related interventions for Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) communities, with a focus on policies and programs necessary to mainstream former combatants in Philippine society;
- Institute a regional government that is transparent, accountable, effective, programmatic and efficient;
- Form a united regional government with meaningful representation of the MILF and the MNLF, should it win a majority in BARMM Regional Parliament;
- Establish constructive and harmonious relations between the national and regional governments and the LGUs (local government units);
- Respect and abide by the power of supervision of the President over the BARMM;
- Support the President’s policies for peaceful elections and the peace process;
- Uphold the Philippine Constitution, the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL)), and other national laws at all times;
- Maintain peace and order alongside efforts of state security forces such as the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP);
- Support the implementation of the National Action Plan to Prevent and Counter Violent Extremism (NAP-PCVE) in the BARMM.
“We should all commit to respecting and implementing all signed Peace Agreement,” said Sinarimbo. “After all, we are all Bangsamoro and our shared future is inextricably linked to each other.”
With the unveiling of its 10-Point Agenda, the BGC appears to be ahead in the preparations for the BARMM’s scheduled first parliamentary elections and, so far, doing it on a consistent basis.
Now, all that remains, according to BARMM observers, is for the first parliamentary elections to push through.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has expressed in many instances that he wants the regional political exercise to go through, saying it will test the peace attained in the Bangsamoro region. (/)