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COTABATO CITY, May 12, 2025 (SDN) — A call of duty for the May 12 local polls in the Bangsamoro region saw around 12,000 regional teachers serving as Board of Electors (BOE), a job fraught with dangers, everywhere in the Philippines.
But dangers or not, the brave teachers the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) deployed as a matter of duty in the various areas of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) passed the gauntlet of hurdles they faced in performing a patriotic assignment.
For their feat, the MBHTE, one of the 15 primary ministries of the BARMM, under the leadership of Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal, commended the teachers for, obviously, a job well done!
In fact, the BARMM’s MBHTE extended “its heartfelt gratitude to all our dedicated Bangsamoro teachers and school personnel who served during the 2025 National and Local Elections (NLE).”
The Bangsamoro education agency took note of the mentors’ “commitment, hard work, and integrity,” emphasizing that they “helped ensure a peaceful, credible, and inclusive electoral process for our communities.”
Iqbal’s MBHTE, which has the biggest number of employees in the Bangsamoro government, more than 22,000 of them teaching personnel, offered its salute to each of the “champions of democracy and guardians of the Bangsamoro people’s voice.”
It can be recalled that in the days leading to last Monday’s consequential political exercise, more so for the Bangsamoro region, as change of leadership in some local government units (LGUs) could be in the offing, the MBHTE deployed the 12,000 teachers for the elections in the region.
Iqbal gave them a pep talk as they were deployed to hie off to their respective assignments.
Serving in BARMM polls more than just a civic duty
“We urge all teachers to avoid any form of political involvement — whether in action or appearance — that could compromise their (work) as partisan,” the MBHTE chieftain says.
The Minister also emphasized that teachers’ participation in the electoral process is more than just a civic duty– it is a crucial contribution to the broader goals of peace, stability, and democratic integrity in the Bangsamoro region and the country as a whole.
“Let the people decide who they want to vote for. When educators remain neutral, they help ensure that the people’s voice is heard and respected through a fair and honest election result,” Iqbal explains.
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.
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: 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. (✓)