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COTABATO CITY (SDN) — Headed by Speaker Pangalian Ali Balindong, the Parliament of the Bangsamoro region has formally asked Congress to extend for the second time the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA).
The BTA runs the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) under the leadership of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), whose political wing, the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), governs the region.
With 80 Members of the Parliament (MPs) — only 73 after removal of Sulu and its 7 representatives, and the MILF and it’s MP allies forming a slim majority, the Parliament made the request through BTA Resolution 641 authored by MP Baintan Ampatuan, an engineer by profession, seeking the extension from 2025 to 2028.
Her resolution presented to the Parliament on October 17 during their first regular session after the break, cited the need for “smooth democratic transition” and at the same time, if enabled by the Senate and House, will postpone anew the inaugural parliamentary polls in the BARMM from May 2025 to May 2028.
It can be recalled that Congress postponed for the first time the parliamentary election that was scheduled for May 2022 as part of the national polls that voted then Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. to become the next President, succeeding the then President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Part of the reason then was the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic originating from Wuhan City in China that impacted all phases of life’s activities — governance, economic, social, tourism, travel, and even peoples’ mundane and routine everyday activities like going to the markets, to the malls, to the parks, and others. Millions died of the Covid-19, and thousands in the Philippines.
The pandemic affected the BTA Parliament’s legislative functions, the reason why it was not able to complete the transition works that would have led to the first parliamentary polls in the Bangsamoro region.
Duterte appointed the first set of MPs in 2019 and Marcos, Jr. the second batch of appointees in 2022, as he also re-appointed MILF Chair Ahod Balawag “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim to his second three-term as interim Chief Minister of the BARMM and re-appointed many of the original MPs.
In relation with the appeal for the second extension of the transition period, Parliament Floor Leader and Chair of the Committee on Rules Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba’s committee report cited MP Ampatuan’s resolution as a vehicle to address the legal issues concerning the Supreme Court’s removal of the island province of Sulu from the BARMM.
Up to Senate and House to decide on plea for second three-year extension
Dumama-Alba said it will give more time in resolving legal issues that may affect the coming parliamentary polls in relation with Sulu no longer a part of the autonomous region.
Earlier, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) headed by Chair George Erwin Garcia scheduled for November 4 to 9 the filing of Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for the parliamentary polls.
COC filing for the rest of the country was already done on October 1 to 8.
Penned by Senior Associate Justice Marvic V.F. Leonen, a former University of the Philippines (UP) professor appointed as chief negotiator in the peace negotiations between the Philippine Government (GPH) and the MILF, the Supreme Court declared “constitutional” the 2018 Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), but at the same time ruled that Sulu was not part of the Bangsamoro region.
The ruling on Sulu caught the BARMM by surprise, not the less the regional official of the Bangsamoro government and the people as well.
Dumama-Alba added that the extension being sought will also be used to promote wider participation of political parties, as well as extended voter education campaign to enhance voters’ understanding of the parliamentary electoral process.
“It is now up to the House and the Senate to consider and act upon this request from the Bangsamoro Parliament,” the majority leader emphasizes.
Two pieces of legislative initiatives, Republic Act (R.A.) No. 11054 and R.A. No. 11593 proved crucial in the life of the BARMM, the former known as the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) which created the BARMM, and the latter extended for three years the BTA’s term.
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, 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. (✓)