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- EDD K. USMAN | X (Twitter): @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech & Digital News
PASAY CITY (SDN) — The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) headed by Chief Minister Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim is ready to welcome Sulu back to the Bangsamoro region family.
To accomplish this, Ebrahim, president of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the political arm of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), agreed with the proposal for a new plebiscite for the re-inclusion of the island province which has been enjoying a stable peace and order environment at least since 2023 as some leaders and members of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf kidnapping group had apparently rejoined the mainstream society.
The chairman of the MILF, Ebrahim let his sentiments known at the Senate on Wednesday, February 5, during a public hearing on the proposal that Mindanao Sen. Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri had made in one of the recent meetings of the Inter-Government Relations Body (IGRB).
The senator from Mindanao filed in November last year Senate Bill (SB) No. 2915 to re-include Sulu in the BARMM. It was the same month the High Court made its decision final and executory, denying the petition made by the Bangsamoro government, Office of the Solicitor General, and other entities.
Recall that the Supreme Court on September 9, 2024, cut the umbilical cord of Sulu from the Bangsamoro family, emphasizing it was “immediately executory.”
The High Court’s ruling on Sulu authored by Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, a former chief negotiator of the Philippine Government (GPH) in the peace talks with the MILF, was part of the decision that declared the 2018 Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) “constitutional”. And just like that, Sulu is off the BARMM, to which it belonged as the foundation of the struggle of the Muslim Filipinos for self-determination and all its attendant aspects — political, economic, social, etc.
When the Supreme Court announced its decision last year it hit like a thunderbolt that flummoxed the BARMM officialdom led by Ebrahim, including the Members of the Parliament (MPs) of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA).
In separate statements, including from BARMM Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal, the BARMM leaders emphasized Sulu’s and the Tausug people’s foundational role in the Bangsamoro’s struggle for equality, justice, and political self-determination.
They said it was in Sulu that the decades of struggle that started with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) came forth and spread across Southern Philippines, particularly in Central Mindanao, of which the Bangsamoro region belongs — including the island provinces of Sulu, Basilan, and Tawi-Tawi.
Now, perhaps, only a plebiscite could get Sulu back to the arms of the BARMM. Leonen’s “ponente” of the successful ratification of the BOL decided against Sulu because majority of the province’s voters “rejected” the 2018 BOL. A difference of over 20,000 ballots of the Tausug people separated the “No” and “Yes” votes against and for the expansion of the Bangsamoro region.
Read: Bangsamoro Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal and Party Receive Rousing Welcome from Banguingui LGU, Teachers, and Students
More photographs at the Senate hearing on Sulu:
Ebrahim formally echoed Zubiri’s suggestion for another plebiscite during the Senate hearing on Sulu of the Committee on Local Government chaired by Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” G. Ejercito. He was joined by Zubiri at the hearing attended by BARMM officials, Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan and the province’s mayors, representatives from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) like, Undersecretary Diciano, Assistant Secretary Jordan Bayam, Department of the Budget and Management (DBM), and BTA.
Does Sulu want in again?
If one asks the governor, the undisputed kingpin of the island province, it’s a huge “No” from him. “They can’t get even five percent (of yes votes),” Tan said when asked by SDN — SciTech and Digital News about the proposed plebiscite after the Senate hearing that was jampacked with attendees.
In fairness, he did not totally reject it. On one condition.
“Not only Sulu,” Tan emphasizes if a plebiscite is held again. “But all the BARMM (member provinces).” He revealed that one province’s leader cried on hearing the Supreme Court’s decision severing Sulu from the Bangsamoro region because they wanted out, too.
Although Sulu is no longer part of BARMM and its membership in any regional grouping of provinces has not been determined yet, the governor is counting on the national government’s help under the leadership of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
He said they want Sulu to be under the national government.
Tan said that when the President visited the province recently, he said Marcos likes the peace and order environment currently prevailing in Sulu.
The governor and the mayors of Sulu took turns unloading their sentiments towards the Bangsamoro government, including allocations of regional budget for projects, hiring of teachers, among others.
It appears that concerned BARMM officials such as Iqbal, minister of the Minister of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE), Minister Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba who heads the Ministry of Interior and Local Government (MILG) and a DBM representative were able to answer appropriately the issues and concerns raised at the Senate hearing.
For one, Iqbal said that in the hiring of teachers, he is sure Sulu is not left behind while at the same time acknowledging that new teacher hiring for the province was supposed to follow but the Supreme Court ruling stymied the process.
As the situation is still uncertain, the MBHTE head said they are awaiting any signal from Malacañang before the education ministry can move on the hiring of teachers for Sulu.
Meanwhile, it was learned at the hearing that Sulu is still included in the 2025 budget of the Bangsamoro government, pending finality of the decision of the High Tribunal.
It can be recalled that in May 2023 Iqbal led a top-level MBHTE party to the island provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to deliver millions of pesos of IT equipment, livelihood tools, other school-related supplies. For Sulu’s school division alone, the Bangsamoro government through the MBHTE delivered around Php70 million worth of supplies. The MBHTE also turned over school buildings and broke ground for new school building projects.
Iqbal’s party comprised of high level MBHTE officials reached even Patikul municipality, a known lair of the bandit group Abu Sayyaf, distributing farm and livelihood equipment to graduates of vocational trainees, including Abu Sayyaf members, the education ministry conducted.
A Philippine Navy ship unloaded the IT equipment and other supplies at the Port of Sulu. (/)