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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech and Digital News
MANILA, November 8, 2024 (SDN) — Amid congressional bills for re-setting to 2026 the inaugural Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE), it’s business as usual at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Cotabato City.
It can be recalled the Comelec under the leadership of Chair George Erwin Garcia re-scheduled the filing of Certificates of Candidacy (COC) for the BPE in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) from October 1-8 to November 4-9, 2024.
The BPE will be synchronized with the National and Local Elections (NLE) on May 12, 2025. Garcia said the BPE filing for COCs and Certificates of Acceptance of Nomination (CANs) will not be extended.
The idea, apparently, for the resetting of filing in the BARMM was to give some time for the unexpected ruling of the Supreme Court in September this year that cut Sulu from the umbilical cord of the Bangsamoro political family.
Minus the island province of Sulu, the BARMM is now comprised of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao de Sur, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan and Marawi as well as the Special Geographic Area (SGA) with eight municipalities in the territorial land of North Cotabato.
Over in Cotabato City today, Friday, the seat of the Bangsamoro government, United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) President Ahod Balawag “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim led the filing of the Manifestation of Intent to Participate in the BPE.
The Comelec office in the city is located inside the Bangsamoro Government Center (BGC) Complex (ORC, Office of the Regional Commissioner), in front of the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) headed by Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal.
Ebrahim is No. 1 in the list of the UBJP nominees, followed at No. 2 by Iqbal (Abbas Datucan).
Iqbal is UBJP executive vice president and vice president for Central Mindanao. He was with Ebrahim at the Comelec, as well as other party officials and some of the 40 nominees or bets for Members of the Parliament (MPs).
Among the nominees is Abdullah Macapaar, the MILF’s Commander Bravo who led the attacks on Lanao del Norte after the ill-fated MOA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain).
Iqbal said completing the UBJP nominees are the party’s bets for District and Sectoral representation in the Parliament.
Iqbal sent SDN – SciTech & Digital News a list of the 40 nominees of the UBJP. They are led by Ebrahim, the chair of the Central Committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). UBJP is the political wing of the MILF.
MILF participation in BARMM polls ‘transformative’ — Ebrahim
“Today marks a very historical event for the (MILF), as the (UBJP) officially files its manifestation to participate in the first regular election for the Bangsamoro Parliament this coming May (12), 2025,” the UBJP head says in a statement shared with reporters and bloggers.
“The filing of candidacies of UBJP’s (25) candidates for parliamentary districts and the (40) nominees for the party representation seats marks a transformative change in the Bangsamoro from bullets to ballots and from armed struggle to electoral struggle.”
It can be recalled that on a Monday, September 23, the MILF announced its transformation from an armed revolutionary organization to an unarmed social movement. The occasion was the Consultative Meeting and General Assembly of the MILF held at Camp Darapanan, Crossing Simuay, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte. It was a today affair that culminated with the exclusive MILF Expanded Central Committee Meeting on its last day.
For next year’s Bangsamoro polls, aspirants will vie for the 73 seats allocated for the Parliament, minus the 7 seats allocated for Sulu’s 7 districts after the Supreme Court decision penned by Senior Associate Justice Marvic V.F. Leonen. He is a former chief negotiator of the Philippine Government (GPH) in the Mindanao peace process with the MILF.
In his statement for the filing, Ebrahim (he leads the UBJP nominees), he assured of delivering his “firm assurance to our people that the UBJP is fully committed in upholding a clean, honest, peaceful, and credible electoral process.”
He continues:
“This pledge is not just for our supporters, but extends to every candidate, every voter, and every community — regardless of party affiliation. We will work tirelessly to safeguard the integrity of this election, ensuring it remains a true reflection of the people’s voice and the aspiration of our region.”
On the other hand, Ebrahim took note of Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero’s filing of Senate Bill (SB) 2862 seeking to re-set the BPE to 2026 to give more time to process the removal of Sulu from the Bangsamoro political family.
At the House of Representatives, Speaker Martin Romualdez led the filing of House Bill (HB) 11034 with the same intent with the Senate bill, resetting the parliamentary polls to May 11, 2026.
The bills were in response to an earlier resolution the BARMM parliament issued that called on Congress to re-schedule for the second time the Bangsamoro polls and extend the term of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), which governs the region led by the MILF’s UBJP as the ruling party.
Much earlier, Ebrahim revealed that President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. had assured his support for the MILF in the regional polls that will vote into office the first regularly elected batch of MPs.
The UBJP president said the President told him when they had a meeting in Manila that the administration party, the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) — Tamayo Camp — will tap its machinery to help the MILF party in the polls.
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. (✓)