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COTABATO CITY — Political parties in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) continued working towards the scheduled May 2025 parliamentary elections.
And, in fact, some are of the eight Bangsamoro regional political parties have been ramping up their preparation. One of them is the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) headed as president by Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim, the BARMM interim chief minister.
The UBJP is the political arm of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which Ebrahim has chaired since the passing away of the MILF founder, Ustadhz Salamat Hashim, on July 13, 2003.
Among the top leaders of the UBJP are BARMM Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal (executive vice president), MILF chief negotiator; Maguindanao del Norte Gov. Abdulraof Macacua (secretary general); Member of Parliament (MP) Atty. Mary Ann M. Arnado (vice president for Settler Communities); Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority (BPDA) Director General Mohajrin Ali, information officer; and many others.
It can be recalled the UBJP drew the first blood when it conducted its 1st Regional General Assembly in Cotabato City on February 17 at the Cotabato State University (CSU) Oval. The event’s Secretariat reported the more 20,000 attendees of the assembly came all the way from the BARMM’s island — Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi — and mainland — Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur — provinces.
Then, on February 19, Ebrahim, along with other UBJP top officials, inaugurated and opened for business the regional UBJP Headquarters in Barangay Tamontaka 1, Cotabato City. UBJP is said to be the single biggest regional political party for the upcoming political exercise.
The UBJP has since then held assemblies in Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Tawi-Tawi. More can be expeccted.
Just a few days ago, the UBJP led by Iqbal, vice president for Central Mindanao, motored to the Special Geographic Area (SGA) in North Cotabato — but under BARMM jurisdiction — to administer the “Special Oathtaking for the thousands of community leaders and barangay officials” there.
Iqbal presided over the oathtaking, along with SGA Chief Executive Officer MP Mohammad Kellie Antao.
Also present were MPs Suwaib “Commander Gordon” Oranon, Jack Abas and Tawakkal Midtimbang, UBJP Arbitral Committee Chairperson and Interior and Local Government Minister Sha Elijah Dunama-Alba, and other local leaders of the party.
“In the presentation of the Office of the Party President (OPP) represented by OPP Assistant Secretary Nas Dunding, 58 barangay chairmen, hundreds of barangay kagawads (council members), and thousands of traditional leaders led by Pikit Mayor Sumulong Sultan swore allegiance to the party,” a UBJP statement reaching SDN – SciTech & Digital News said.
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. With the recent plebiscite at SGA, the BARMM now has eight new municipalities as 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. (✓)